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Romance of 
Trouville 

rRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF BREHAT, 

By Meta DeVere. 

ILLUSTRATED BY WECHSLER. 



I THE 
CHOICE 
SERIES 
No. 09. 


BEATRIX ROHAN. 

21 NodcL 


BY 

t, MRS. HARRIET LEWIS, 

Author of “ The Two Husbands ,” lt Her Double Life,” “ Lady 
Kildare ,” ‘“Edith Trevor's Secret “ Old Life's 
Shadows ,” “ The Haunted Husband ,” etc. 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WARREN B. DAVIS. 


12mo. 430 Pages. Handsomely Bound in Cloth. Price, $1.00. 

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“Beatrix Rohan ; or, Hunted for Her Money ” will interest all 
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“ Beatrix Rohan ” is not unworthy of the author of “ Her Double 
Life,” and we recommend it to all the readers of the latter story. 

For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or sent, post- 
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ROBERT BONNER’S SONS, 

Cor. William and Spruce Streets, New York. 


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NEIGHBORING STEPPES. 

2 Howl. 


ADAPTED FROM THE GERMAN 

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For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or sent, post- 
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ROBERT BONNER’S SONS, 

Cor. William and Spruce Streets, New York. 


ROMANCE OF TROUVILLE. 

























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ROMANCE OF TROUVILLE 


a Nmwl 


TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF 

BREHAT, 


BY 


META DE VERE 




WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WECHSLER. 



ROBERT BONNER’S SONS, 

PUBLISHERS. 




THE CHOICE SERIES : ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, TWELVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM. NO. 69, 
SEPTEMBER 15, 1892. ENTERED AT THE NEW YORK, N. Y., POST OFFICE AS SECOND CLAQ8 MAIL MATTER. 



COPYBIGHT, 1892, 

By ROBERT BONNER’S SONS. 


{All rights reserved .) 



ROMANCE OF TROUVILLE. 


CHAPTER I. 

AT TROUVILLE. 

ROUV1LLE is one of the hand- 
somest watering-places on the 
northern coast of France. 
Snugly ensconced between 
high hills on the right hand of 
a small river, it looks like a 
nest of small green or white 
houses. Along the river you 
see the old portions of the town, mainly occu- 
pied by fishermen and modest shopkeepers. On 



8 


Romance of Trouville . 


the beach, however, stand newly-built cottages 
and villas, generally with small gardens in front, 
between them and the sea waves. 

A little farther on, westward, larger houses 
begin to show, which extend into the valley and 
are scattered over the slope of the hill. An 
elegant swiss cottage crowns the hill and 
seems to dominate the place, extending its 
beautiful gardens down to the sea, and open- 
ing here and there magnificent views over the 
ocean. 

The season here extends mainly from the mid- 
dle of July to the middle of August. After that, 
the place is overrun with excursionists and 
school children in overwhelming numbers. It 
becomes impossible then to walk on the beauti- 
ful terrace without knocking against some Mas- 
ter of Arts or Bachelor of Letters in embryo. 
Intoxicated with the sense of unwonted freedom 
from discipline, the boys and young men dash 
about like runaway horses, catch in the ladies’ 


At Trouville. 


9 


dresses, upset your chair or make delicate stom- 
achs sea-sick by balancing themselves frantically 
on the wings of the terrace. 

The present year was one of the most success- 
ful seasons of this fashionable resort. Never 
had a more elegant or more animated crowd of 
visitors filled the splendid rooms of the Casino, 
or scattered in picturesque groups over the 
sands at the hours for bathing. Lodgings were 
no longer to be had. The greatest historical 
names of France — speaking financially as well, as 
Mr. Prudhomme used to say — figured on the list 
of subscribers, which old visitors carefully stud- 
ied every morning at the door of the Casino, 
where it was hung up. There were noblemen 
there whose coats-of-arms would have made a 
German Markgraf tremble with envy, and men 
of more millions than many a Rothschild even. 
The American alone was as yet but sparingly 
represented — but, then, half-a-dozen of these 
children of the Far West, spent more money and 


IO 


Romance of Trouville . 


displayed more luxury than a hundred average 
guests. Sumptuous equipages, some with four 
horses, a few even with outriders, in royal fash- 
ion, dashed through the streets and carried 
along the beach countless numbers of elegant 
ladies displaying Worth’s last masterpieces, and 
wearing bonnets that none but a Parisian genius 
could ever have devised. Gentlemen, generally 
dressed to imitate Englishmen, and ladies on 
horseback were seen on the sands, or on any of 
the many roads that lead to picturesque points 
in the neighborhood. 

It was a hot day in August, and almost the 
whole population was assembling on the beach, 
between the so-called stockade and the castle, 
to celebrate some national holiday. The author- 
ities of the place enjoy the enviable reputation of 
surpassing skill in providing amusement for the 
people. They organize their efforts well, and 
find foreigners quite ready to render assistance 
where it may be needed. On the great square, 


A t Trouville. 


i l 


at the corner formed by the beach and the wharf, 
a kind of tent had been erected, apparently to 
protect a platform intended for the authorities 
against the inroads of the sun, while outsiders 
had to pay three francs for the same privilege. 
From this point the view lay open from the 
stockade on the left, along the sands, to the 
striking wall of rocks on the right, known as the 
Black Rocks. 

Three rows of ladies in superb toilettes 
adorned the three upper steps and a number of 
chairs that had been placed in front of the tent 
upon the edge of the wharf. Among these ele- 
gant ladies there was one who first of all 
attracted the eye, a lady of about fifty, and yet 
almost literally clothed in all the colors of the 
rainbow. Upon looking more closely at her, you 
might come to the conclusion that a modern 
Pygmalion might have given life to a Nurem- 
berg doll and to make of it a human being, capa- 
ble of eating, drinking, walking, and above all, 


12 


Romance of Trouville . 


of slandering the neighbor. Unfortunately the 
model was ill-chosen. A black velvet band, with 
a diamond in the centre, hung across her fore- 
head, and helped to support on the head of the 
noble lady a tour of false hair, which fell in what 
was then called English weeping curls on both 
sides of the face down on a waist of black silk, 
richly ornamented with a variety of trimmings. 
Her dry, pointed nose, crowning so to say her 
tall and angular figure, produced the effect of a 
raven’s beak on top of a cane. It looked like a 
rampart, moreover, to protect two thin, pale lips, 
which were always closely shut, as if to prevent 
an escape of the set of teeth which had taken the 
place of the long-forgotten thirty-two pearls, the 
gift of Nature to Madame Hildegard de Brina- 
van. 

Never was a bitter, thoroughly selfish char- 
acter lodged in a stiffer and more ungraceful 
body. When she began to move, you were 
greatly surprised to hear no cracking of bones, 


At Trouville . 


i3 


or rather no breaking of springs. The daughter 
of a provincial notary public, she had reached 
her thirty-third year without having been found 
willing to surrender. Then a poor devil of a 
lieutenant, tempted by the ten thousand dollars, 
more or less, which Mile. Hildegard was said to 
possess, laid his commission aside to lead her to 
the altar. Both parties had promptly repented 
the step. Their domestic life soon became a 
hell upon earth. No wonder trouble came and 
discord reigned supreme. She held the purse- 
strings, and her husband— so Mrs. Grundy said — 
held the whip ! 

After two years of such a life, in consequence 
of a conversation in which words, insulting 
words and even blows alternated, the poor young 
lieutenant re-enlisted, but in the marines, and 
went and had himself killed in the Eastern 
Colonies. 

His death, in a bloody battle, was truly heroic 
and noble, and made all forget the wrongs he 


H 


Romance of Trouville . 


might have had in life. Even his wife, who 
before would willingly have scolded him five 
hours on a stretch, now made of him a treasure, 
an angel of love and of kindness, since she had no 
longer to fear that he might return. In spite of 
this posthumous affection, she very soon 
married a second husband, a merchant, a decent 
sort of man, called Babolin Grodot. It must be 
stated at once, to explain this great condescen- 
sion, that the man possessed a considerable for- 
tune. Unfortunately for him there came soon 
after his wedding a great financial crisis, which 
ruined him completely. Undismayed, however, 
he bravely went to work anew, and, two years 
later, was on the point of making a second for- 
tune, when, quite unexpectedly, his wife fell heir 
to more than ten thousand a year. An old 
cousin, whom she had never seen, whose very 
existence was until then entirely unknown to 
her, had left her his whole fortune ! 

This unforeseen event cost her the name by 


At Trouville. 


*5 


which she had been known since her second mar- 
riage. Having paid his predecessor’s debts, she 
declared that she had purchased his name — De 
Brinavan — dear enough; she forbade her husband 
to call himself Grodot any longer and to con- 
tinue his business as a tradesman. Grodot was 
the best creature alive. To secure peace in the 
house, he agreed to everything — except two 
things : He would not allow his wife to put her 
servants into livery, and he himself would not 
give up his pipe, his game at dominos and his 
unfailing white cravat. The most difficult sac- 
rifice to make he found was the surrender of his 
name ; but the aristocratic wife explained to him 
so long the difference, that he at last consented 
to being called Babolin no longer, but Alphonse ; 
although this cost him the favor — and a possible 
legacy — of the godfather, who had given him his 
own name, Babolin. 

M. Grodot de Brinavan very rarely went into 
society ; whist, and especially piquet, filled all his 


i6 


Romance of Trouville . 


leisure hours, together with three walks which 
he regularly took every day at the same hours. 
If the good man was little at home in the gilded 
salons of his wife and her friends, he understood 
on the other hand admirably, how to make her 
fortune productive, so that a few years later, the 
worth}^ couple had nearly twenty thousand a 
year, and the whole handsome capital was most 
carefully invested in National Debt obligations 
and first mortgages of the best railways. Unfor- 
tunately for the skillful financier, his Hildegard 
had profited by the momentary ruin of her 
husband’s business, and by her own productive 
inheritance to claim the sceptre in the house, 
and this absolute rule she had now so firmly 
established that no earthly power could have 
deprived her of it again. Her husband never 
dreamt of it. Provided he was left undisturbed at 
the hours of his meals, of his walks, and of his 
games at domino, “ Alphonse-Babolin ” sub- 
mitted to everything. When his better-half 







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At Trouville . 


17 


growled and stormed — which happened not 
unfrequently — he put his hands in his pockets 
and listened to her patiently, without interrupt- 
ing her. If the storm continued, he went to 
take a walk, or he closed his eyes and slept the 
sleep of the innocent. 

At the moment when we met Madame de 
Brinavan, she was surrounded by a bevy of 
young men, while she was reclining comfortably, 
gaping behind her huge fan and recalling the 
fable of the Ass laden with Relics ; for the com- 
pliments which she received and hugely enjoyed 
were much less intended for herself than for two 
nieces of her husband’s, who were sitting beside 
her. One of these ladies, the elder, Hermance 
Holmes, had married three years before a rich 
Portuguese, called Don Manoel Cobrizo. Her 
beauty had something magic in it which 
instantly attracted the eyes of all who came 
near her. A magnificent mass of brown hair, so 
that the hairdresser’s skill was needed to confine 


i8 


Romance of Trouville . 


it in bounds, formed as it were a silken diadem 
above her alabaster-white brow. Her almost 
black eyebrows, beautifully arched, contrasted 
brilliantly with the blue of her eyes, that some 
likened to the color of forget-me-not. Her 
white and pink complexion had the peculiar 
shade which is so greatly admired in the 
Madonnas of Murillo. She was of medium size ; 
splendid shoulders and finely-moulded arms 
gave her an elegance and a distinction which 
made people forget the weary smile on her lips 
and the affected negligence of her carriage and 
her speech. She was considered eccentric, 
rather coquettish, and ambitious of being at all 
times surrounded by a circle of admirers, not 
one of whom could ever boast of being the 
favorite. 

Her sister, three years younger, was called 
Laura. An old gentleman, Count Marti — who had 
taken her under his special protection — compared 
her to one of those dragon-flies, dressed in azure 


At Trouville . 


l 9 


blue and emerald green, that flit over the waters 
with their gauze-like wings. He always called her 
his Fair Dragon. Rather taller than her sister, 
Laura displayed in her whole appearance, in her 
walk as in her gestures, a kind of elegance that 
might well be called airy. 

Hermance never appeared in society without 
making a sensation by her surprising beauty ; 
while Laura was, at the first glance, not rarely 
overlooked. But a second look revealed the 
charming sheen in her light, but ‘abundant hair 
of marvelous fineness, the grayish-blue eyes had 
a few small orange-colored spots on the iris, 
which gave them at a distance a sea-green hue, 
while the nearer you came to them the darker 
they appeared, especially when the young girl 
was excited or deeply moved. 

The principal charm of Miss Holmes was, 
however, in the eyes of her most ardent admir- 
ers, an ineffably graceful smile that sometimes 
flitted over her eloquent lips. This rare charm 


20 


Romance of Trouville . 


seemed moreover, to be bound up with the pale 
pink of her complexion, which darkened and 
faded away again as a word, a thought, or a look 
appealed to her heart. A little dimple, also, 
seemed to open like a lovely, tiny flower when- 
ever the fresh, silver-tongued laugh of the young 
girl was heard. And with air that she seemed 
to pay but little attention to the young men, 
who surrounded her everywhere. Far from 
competing with Hermance, she let her enjoy 
the worship of her admirers, without seemingly 
noticing her triumph. 

At this moment, five or six young men, a glass 
in one eye and a permanent smile on their lips, 
were explaining to Mme. de Cobrizo, the order 
of amusements that were in store for the 
guests. 

“ What else is there to be seen to-night?” she 
asked, turning to Mr. James Lindsay, a young 
man of twenty-three or four, with a clear com- 


At Trouville . 


21 


plexion, chestnut hair and carefully combed 
whiskers. 

“ Here is the programme !” said eagerly 
another young man with long, straggling whis- 
kers, whose head seemed to be divided into two 
equal halves by the partition of his hair, which 
ran from his forehead to the backbone. 

“ Read it,” said the lady. Garton — this was 
his name — dropped with an effort the eyeglass 
which he had been holding up by a painful con- 
tortion of his right eyebrow, and began to read 
aloud. 

“ Enough, enough ! Mr. Garton !” broke in 
Laura Holmes. “ Do you think we wish to hear 
the whole from the heading to the name of the 
printer?” 

While Garton was folding up the programme 
and replacing with much trouble the precious 
square eyeglass, another young man said : 

“ We have had the horizontal mast, the 


22 


Romance of Trouville. 


greased pole, the swimming race, and the don- 
key race — ” 

“Judge, go on to the Deluge !” laughed Laura 
once more. “ I ask what we shall see, not what 
we have seen !” 

“ I shall be there directly !” he answered mer- 
rily. “ There remain yet of amusements : the 
bag race, which will begin directly, the gentle- 
man’s hurdle race, and last the prize given to 
native horses.” 

“ Are there many entries for the hurdle race ?” 
asked Mme. de Cobrizo. 

“ Messrs. Lindsay, Veillan, Garton — ” 

“ And Mr. Spencer,” added Garton. 

“ And Mr. Strettel !” said Lindsay. 

“ That makes six,” said Laura. 

“ And I make seven !” cried a chubby, fat man, 
called Martin Benavan. 

“ Then we are eight, if you will count me in,” 
said M. de Bailly. 


At Trouville. 


23 


“What? You too!” exclaimed Mme. de 
Cobrizo. 

“ That 1 too’ is very humiliating !” replied the 
young man, laughing good-naturedly. 

“ Great God ! I said so because I had heard 
you say yourself, that you knew hardly how to 
mount a horse.” 

“ That is true ; but I deserve all the more 
credit, I think, and that is why I count upon 
your sympathy. You will honor unlucky cour- 
age I am sure !” 

“ Then, gentlemen, there will be nine of us,” 
said M. de Cobrizo, who had just come up from 
the beach. 

“ What, sir, you will ride?” asked Hermance. 

“ Certainly ! I hope married men are not for- 
bidden to compete for that wonderful wreath of 
flowers which you intend for the lucky winner?” 

“And the bouquet which he will have the 
right to offer to the lady of his choice?” Mme. 
de Brinavan added in her mincing way. 


24 


Romance of Trouville. 


“ All roads are open to the ambitious !” said 
Laura, laughing. “ But, M. de Cobrizo, you did 
not catch what it was that troubled my sister. 
You know the winner will also receive a superb 
whip, and she fears the use you make ot it with 
the slaves in your country, might come back to 
you and — ” 

All laughed at the jest, but the Portuguese 
showed very clearly that he did not like the 
allusion. 

Don Manoel de Cobrizo was a man of perhaps 
forty, undersized, but powerfully built, and evi- 
dently as agile and quick as he was strong. He 
was rather good looking, but his low forehead 
and his deep sunk eyes gave him a somewhat 
sinister look, while the dark brown circles 
around his eyes helped to darken the olive com- 
plexion of this son of the tropics. Although by 
nature very imperious and hot tempered, Don 
Manoel was in the habit of carefully weighing 
his words, This rather pretentious way of talk- 


A t Trouville . 


25 


ing contrasted strangely with his person, his 
mind and his manners, all of which lacked that 
distinction which familiarity with good society 
is apt to give. As one of his friends had once 
said : “ M. de Cobrizo is, after all, only a well- 

Varnished savage !” 

“ By the way,” his wife asked, “ where is M. 
de Gavary ?” 

“ His arm is not yet strong enough to let him 
appear in society,” answered Garton. 

“ And will nobody ride his horse?” asked Miss 
Holmes. 

“ Unless he is determined upon seeking death, 
no one will venture,” answered another young 
man. “ You know, of course, that M. de Gavary 
is the third person whom this mad brute — Blue 
Bonnet — has nearly killed within a fortnight?” 

“ An amiable beast, I am told,” said Hermance. 
“ He is fond of rearing straight up and then 
throwing himself back upon his rider.” 


26 


Romance of Trouville . 


“ Whom must we bet on?” asked the Baroness 
Grinan, a great friend of Mme. de Cobrizo. 

“ On Mr. Lindsay !” answered Garton. 

“ M. Cobrizo’s horse is faster than mine,” 
replied the Englishman. 

“ But yours jumps better,” said the Portu- 
guese. “ And you, M. de Garton ?” 

“Charles and I, we covet ardently the place of 
the last at the post !” replied the young man. 

“And M. Benavan?” asked Miss Holmes. 

“ He will never get there,” was Charles’ an- 
swer. 

Just then the cry arose: “ Why, what is 
going on there, towards the Casino ?” and all 
eyes were turned in that direction. It was evi- 
dent that the crowd of people on the square 
were rapidly opening to let a gentleman pass, 
who came down on the upper terrace at full 
speed, and suddenly, for some not very evident 
reason, made his horse jump down on the sands, 
a height of at least eight feet. 


At Trouville. 


27 


A thunder of applause saluted the exploit. 

“ I bet it is Ren6 Gavary !” cried several at 
once. 

\ 

“ So it is!” said Garton, who had climbed on 
a chair to be able to see the bold horseman in 
the centre of the crowd, by which he was sur- 
rounded. 

This name, so suddenly introduced, seemed to 
produce a peculiar impression upon several 
members of the assembly. Mme. de Brinavanbit 
her lips and drew herself up like a fighting cock 
before the battle. Hermance turned pale and her 
heaving bosom betrayed her excitement. As to 
Miss Holmes, she seemed at first disposed to 
get up and look around to see the person men- 
tioned. Then, conscious that she blushed and 
turned pale by turns, she pretended to wipe 
some grains of sand from her face and thus hid 
her features. M. de Cobrizo also did not 
remain indifferent at hearing the name of Gava- 
ry; for he instantly turned with a smile to his 


28 


Romance of Trouville . 


wife. As she was just then whispering into 
Miss Holmes’ ear, he could not see her face. 
He sauntered up to M. Garton, and begged 
him to point out M. de Gavary, who was just 
getting down from his horse. He trembled, 
and his eyes shone with a fierce look. 

“ What is the matter with you ?” Garton 

asked. 

* 

Cobrizo looked at him a moment without say- 
ing a word. Then, as if recalled to himself by 
the young man’s question, he replied coolly, 
that he was impatient, waiting for his horse. 

“ I must go and look after it myself,” he said, 
jumping down on the sands. There he mingled 
with a group of men who were surrounding M. 
de Gavary, and began to examine him with sin- 
gular attention. 



CHAPTER II. 

RENE DE GAVARY. 

“ Who is this M. de Gavary ?” asked one of 
the bystanders. “ It seems to me I have seen 
that name somewhere ?” 

“ Probably in the Moniteur," Charles replied. 
“ Gavary received the cross of the Legion of 
Honor for some exploit in Africa, of which all 
the papers were full. With only a dozen 
marines, he set out in a sloop and took a slave 
ship with twice as many men. Then he attacked 
and took the slave-dealer’s establishment on the 
coast, destroying it totally, and ruining, they 
say, one of the greatest ‘ dealers in ivory,’ as 
thejr call them.” 


[29] 


30 


Romance of Trouville. 


“ What a horrible traffic !” exclaimed Mme. 
de Brinavan. “ What wretches those men must 
be who sell God’s creatures like common 
cattle !” 

“ I agree with you heartily,” said Charles. 
“ But, nevertheless, some of them have become 
great millionaires by that trade.” 

“ They are not the less to be despised !” cried 
Laura with much feeling. 

“ Agreed again !” replied Charles. “ But they 
are so much less despised, as they are rich J” 

“ What is this young Gavary now ?” 

“ He is nothing. He resigned two years ago. 
And what is most strange, not one of his friends 
knows why he did so.” 

“He is a friend of yours?” asked the young 
lady. 

“ Yes, Madame, and a friend to whom I am 
sincerely attached.” 

“ I cannot congratulate you as to that friend- 
ship,” said Mile, de Brinavan, sneeringly. “ A 


Rene de Gavary. 


3 


bad man, a gambler and a debauched drink- 
er.” 

“You are too severe, Madame!” replied 
Charles. “ At school, Gavary always stood first 
and foremost ; he might have chosen any profes- 
sion, but he thought the Navy was his special 
vocation. His cross and his rapid promotion 
prove that his services were deemed most praise- 
worthy.” 

“ Perhaps his patrons in high places !” said 
Hildegard. 

“They certainly praised him very highly. 
His mother said so !” 

“ By no means ! I have myself read letters in 
which he was most highly praised.” 

“ Perhaps letters from comrades of the same 
type !” 

“ No, Madame ! Written by the Admiral under 
whom Ren6 was serving.” 

“Well, we’ll leave that! We’ll forget the 
past and speak only of the present day,” replied 


32 


Romance of Trouville . 


Hildegard again. “ Will you also maintain that 
M. de Gavary, since he has left the service, has 
continued to be a model for young men.” 

“ No, Madam ! But this change in Ren£ came 
so suddenly, and is so utterly incomprehensible, 
that there must be some appalling catastrophe 
at the bottom of it.” 

“Oh, come!” cried Mme. de Brinavan. “I 
know, I tell you, the cause of this inexplicable 
change, as you call it. His mother, who died 
four years ago, left him a nice little fortune, 
which he squandered in a short time. He no 
sooner felt himself a free man and his pockets 
well filled, than he gave himself up to all the 
evil instincts which he had so long concealed, 
and unfortunately his mother — ” 

“ Dear Aunt !” Mme. de Cobrizo said implor- 
ingly. 

“ His mother, with all her airs of gentleness 
and of piety, was perhaps the most incapable, the 
most ridiculous, the most — ” 


Rene de Gavary. 


33 


“ Please, my dear Aunt, say no more,” now 
interposed Laura eagerly. “ His mother has 
been to me and my sister all that a mother could 
have been. Poor orphans as we were, she took 

us in, simply because we were the children of an 

* 

old boarding-school friend. You see, you give 
us great pain by speaking as you do of that 
excellent lady.” 

“Very well, Madame,” said Mine, de Brinavan, 
red with anger and biting her lips. “ Since 
Mme. de Gavary is dearer to you than your own 
family, I shall not dare find fault with her any- 
more in the slightest degree. Only you must 
give me leave to remember when and where 
you gave utterance to such an extraordinary 
preference. You may count upon it.” 

Laura simply bowed, but said nothing. At 
that moment M. Garton came to the steps on 
horseback and cried : “ I come with a startling 

piece of news, ladies ; we shall be ten at the 
hurdle race !” 


34 


Romance of Tronville. 


“ Who is it?” 

“ M. de Gavary ! He will ride M. Mori’s 
horse !” 

“What! That brute, that has hurt three 
people already ?” 

“ Exactly ! The famous Blue Bonnet ! There 
are people who are never in doubt about them- 
selves. As it is, I would not give a penny for 
Gavary’s life. We shall all have a good laugh 
presently.” 

He sat his horse so badly that, as he chanced 
to touch it with his spur, it came near throwing 
his rider, and his friends laughed. 

“ Say, Garton !” cried Charles, “ it seems the 
laughing begins already ! Is Gavary coming?” 

The young man with the hair parted so 
artistically, did not wait for more witticisms 
and dashed off. 

“ You are wicked to-day !” said Mmer. de Brin- 
avan, and Hermance looked as if she for once 
agreed with the old lady. 


Rene de Gavary. 


35 


“ You see, Madame,” he replied, “ I am only 
one degree fiercer than the elephant in the 
menagerie. He defended himself when he was 
attacked — I defend my friends also when they 
are attacked. Garton is a wicked scamp, who, 
under the mask of merely laughing, attacks all 
that is above him, and that not openly, to his 
face, but by slander. When a man indulges in 
that kind ol wickedness, he ought at least to have 
two qualities: cleverness to amuse people and 
courage to maintain what he says. Garton has 
neither the one nor the other, and thus I see no 
so-called attenuating circumstances in his case.” 

“ You are the worst man I ever knew,” replied 
Mme. de Brinavan, very angrily. “ Hereafter 
we shall not dare address any stranger that may 
come here, till we have asked you if you speak 
to him !” 

“ Gavary is not a stranger here ; he and M. 
Garton know each other well. Rene has ren- 
dered him many kind services. That did not 


36 


Romance of Trouville. 


keep the gentleman with the parted hair, yester- 
day, at the dinner-table, to speak very unchari- 
tably of Gavary !” 

He noticed at last the signs Miss Holmes 
made him, not to provoke her aunt too far. 
Whilst Hildegard then poured out her wrath 
against Gavary and his friend, Miss Holmes 
said in a whisper, “You asked me for the 
cotillion to-night, M. de Bailly ?” 

“ And you refused me without the slightest 
hesitation,” he replied, laughing. 

“ Because — ” 

“Because I am a bad waltzer!” he answered. 
“ Speak it out, tell the truth. I shall not be 
angry !” 

“Well, yes! So it is. Nevertheless, if you 
still wish for it, I’ll give it to you.” 

“ Have you made a discovery? Do I waltz 
tolerably well after all ?” 

“ Not exactly. But I see in you a quality 


Rene de Gavary . 


37 


which I esteem very highly. You detend your 
friends. That is nice in you, M. Charles !” 

He was about to thank her, but she stopped 
him by looking at her aunt, who was bending 
over to hear the conversation. “ Miss Holmes,” 
he suddenly said, “ if you want to see that 
famous Blue Bonnet, here he is coming. You 
shall judge of his amiable temper. For my part, I 
shall get on my horse and select the hurdle 
where I shall break my neck.” 

“ I am glad to see him join his friend,” said 
Mme. de Brinavan. “A fine pair! Two gam- 
blers, two spendthrifts and — ” While the old 
lady was out of breath for a moment, her two 
nieces and Mme. de Grinan were examining the 
horse that had been brought up for their inspec- 
tion. It was a magnificent animal, thorough- 
bred and very large. Its dark brown coat bore 
a number of darker spots which made it look 
well-nigh black. Every feature that makes a 
horse the fairest of God’s creations among 


38 


Romance of Trouville . 


domestic animals, was here ; but as nobody had 
dared mount him since the accident that had 
befallen M. Mori, he was more ill-tempered than 
usual. At every one of his enormous leaps he 
raised the two grooms who were holding him, 
high in the air, and instinctively the crowd 
parted and made way, wherever the savage 
animal made its appearance. 

He was thus brought up to a group of so-called 
gentlemen-riders , who were settling the conditions 
of the race. “‘Who is that man?” suddenly 
asked M. de Gavary, pointing at Cobrizo, while 
Mori was explaining to him the breeding of Irish 
horses. 

“That is Don Manoel Cobrizo!” 

“ Miss Holmes’ husband ?” asked Ren6 with 
very pointed eagerness. 

“ Yes.” 

“ Not the husband of the elder sister, Miss 
Hermance ?” 

“ Exactly ! Do you know her ?” 


Rene de G a vary. 


39 


“Ah ! That is her husband !” said Gavary in 
the same tone, and looking hard at the Por- 
tuguese. 

“ They say he is a Portuguese and immensely 
rich,” continued Mori, and then resumed the 
topic of Ireland and Irish horses. Ren6, how- 
ever, no longer listened ; he had seen Charles de 
Bailly, who was coming up to him, and with 
whom he shook hands very cordially. In the 
meantime the two men took advantage of being 
thus protected from sight by the crowd that sur- 
rounded them, to put on their jackets ; Charles a 
green one and Gavary a red one he had bor- 
rowed from M. Mori. 

“By the way,” said the latter, turning to 
Gavary, “ do you know what the prize of the 
conqueror is ?” 

“ No!” 

“Oh, we are in plain Arcadia here! These 
ladies have, with their own white hands, manu- 


40 


Romance of Trouvitle. 


tic bouquet. The first man at the post has the 
right to offer this bouquet to the lady of his 
heart, who in return bestows upon him the 
crown.” 

“ The best part of the whole thing is the 
whip,” resumed Mori, who was not famous for 
gallantry. “ 1 brought it down from London 
myself ; a genuine English plait, nothing but 
catgut and whalebone.” 

“ Come, gentlemen, mount your horses!” cried 
several men, “the people are becoming impa- 
tient !” 

“That is their business!” replied Bailly, 
laughing. “ However, the hurdles are not up 
yet !” 

“ 1 beg your pardon, sir,” said one of the 
managers, “there is but one more coming !” 

“ You know,” cried Lindsay, “ the last will be 
a fixed barrier !” 

“ That will be dangerous indeed,” murmured 


some. 


Rene de Gavary . 


4i 


“ Not at all !” said Lindsay. “We, five of us, 
do not consent to ride except this is done. If 
the difficulties are not serious, we might as well 
surrender to M. de Cobrizo at once !” 

“ It will kill some one, I am sure !” continued 
the doubting Thomas. 

“ Pshaw ! Don’t come and frighten us ! At 
least be cheerful, if you must be killed, and 
we’ll all of us go to your burial !” 

“ That is all very well,” insisted the big young 
man, “ but the horses will reach the barrier 
tired out, and they will think they can do it, 
Touch and Go, as at the other hurdles. But 
this barrier is three feet six high, and we are 
sure to break our necks. I am going to with- 
draw !” 

“An offer, gentleman,” cried M. de Cobrizo, 
while they were nailing on the planks of the 
last barrier, just in front of the principal stand. 
M Suppose we were to make a pool?” 

“ Let us put in five louis !” said Lindsay. 


42 


Romance of Trouville. 


“ Why not ten?” came from the big man. 

“ I say twenty !” cried the Portuguese. 

“ And I say twenty-five !” added Gavary. 

For a moment silence reigned. The matter 
began to be serious, but when the honor of nine 
young men is at stake, no one of them dares 
remain behind. 

“ Very well,” they answered. Bailly alone 
excepted, who blushed crimson. The fact is 
that the young man, although the heir to a cer- 
tain fortune, was kept very close by his parents, 
and had but little money to spend. At this 
moment his available fortune amounted to eight 
louis, but yielding to that false shame, that is so 
powerful with the young, he hesitated to refuse 
coming into the pool, just because he was well- 
known to be the least rich of them all. 

“Who takes the money?” asked M: de 
Cobrizo. 

“ Certainly Benavan, because he will not go 
in with us.” 


Rene de Gavary . 


43 


Then everybody gave his twenty-five louis 
to the fat man. The perspiration broke out on 
poor M. Bailly’s face. At this moment Gavary 
said : 

“ There is my share and Bailly’s/’ and, guess- 
ing the truth, he threw a thousand franc note 
into Benavan’s hat. Charles breathed like a 
man who has just been delivered of a heavy bur- 
den. He took Ren6 aside and said : “ My dear 

friend, I must tell you frankly — ” 

“ Pshaw !” broke in Ren6, “ keep your secret ! 
Have we not all been in the same hole. You’ll 
pay me the money back in ten years — if you 
choose — and if I am alive,” he added, with so 
sad a smile, that Charles could not help it, but 
must take his hand and press it affectionately. 
A tear glistened in Rent’s eye, who returned the 
pressure and went to mount his horse. 

** You know the start is from the Black 
Rocks,” cried one of the officials. “ It is time 


44 


Romance of TrouviUt . 


for you to be there. M. de Charney will accom- 
pany you on horseback and give the signal. 

“ Does your horse jump readily, Mori ?” asked 
Ren£, as he put his foot in the stirrup. 

“ He has his days,” replied the young man 
“ He is the most provoking animal I know. He 
may get over all the hurdles without the 
slightest hesitation, but I arm afraid of the last, 
the fixed barrier. If he should refuse it, don’t 
get angry, and above all don’t treat him badly ; 
he would only rear and throw himself back upon 
you — that is one of the ways he has!’ 

“ We’ll see that !” replied Ren<§, as he got into 
the saddle in spite of Blue-Bonnet’s resistance. 

“ Let go !” he said to the two grooms. 

For a moment the animal stood perfectly still. 
Then, after some frightful leaps in the air, he 
rushed like a hurricane into the crowd, which 
gave way with loud cries. Rene brought him 
back to the same place, and finally started him 
in spite of his kicking and jumping most iear- 


Rene tie Gavary. 


45 


fully. Ten minutes later, the nine young men 
were ready for the start at the Black Rocks, 
their eyes fixed upon the red flag, with which 
the official was to give the signal for the start. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE RACE. 

In all societies of the world, but especially in 
those at watering-places, there spring up a num- 
ber of jealousies and rivalries, dependent upon 
wealth, position, connections and other insignifi 
cant distinctions which here assume a new 
meaning. This season Bailly maintained that 
Trouville consisted of two great armies, each of 
which had its divisions and subdivisions. He 
had even analysed the strength of each corps, 
created imaginary regiments and assigned to each 
a lady in command. 

“ Such and such a regiment carried off the 
honors to-day!” he would say alter every ball. 

[ 46 ] 


The Race . 


47 


According to his classification, the Army Corps 
under Brinavan consisted of the two divisions, 
Cobrizo and Grinan, each of which was two 
regiments strong; the first containing the regi- 
ments Holmes and Cobrizo, the other the regi- 
ments commanded by Grinan and Versan. The 
Countess Versan was a warm friend of Mme. de 
Grinan. As each regiment had to-day furnished 
its jockeys for the race, their rivalries invested 
the event with a special interest. The conquest 
of the bouquet had become a very serious matter 
and the ladies were greatly excited. Mme. de 
Cobrizo had two champions in the field : first, 
her husband, who loved her dearly and was as 
jealous as a tiger ; then M. Lindsay, whose love 
and love-sighs were a mystery for no one. 
Miss Holmes had under her flag M. de Bailly 
and Garton. In his heart the latter perhaps 
preferred the riper beauty of Hermance, but 
Laura’s fortune was a great temptation to him 
to stop the holes eaten into his capital by the 


48 


Romance of Trouville . 


rats of the ballet, baccarat, bets and financial 
ventures. Spencer also, in spite of his icy stiff- 
ness, showed at times a certain predilection for 
Miss Holmes. Of the nine competitors, M. de 
Gavary and the American Strettel were the only 
one’s who fought under no acknowledged flag. 

Ren£, by his bravery, his skill and his -win- 
some ways had become a general favorite. His 
face was, besides, peculiarly sympathetic, with 
its wide brow, overshadowed by a mass of 
naturally curling brown hair, his large, dark 
blue eyes, his haughty but sad look, and his 
supple and well-formed figure. “ He is a a fel- 
low that has spunk,” the sailors said of him, with 
certain energetic additions, which need not be 
repeated here. What won him to-day the spe- 
cial sympathy of the crowd, was the fact that he 
was the only Frenchman who seemed to have 
some chance to win the day. The rumor was 
that M. Lindsay would secure the prize, because 
his Irish horse jumped beautifully, and next to 


The Race . 


49 


him, most probably, M. de Cobrizo, whose horse 
was a very fast thoroughbred. Now, in Nor- 
mandy, as in Britany, patriotism is a peculiarly 
strongly developed sentiment, and the antipathy 
to the English is still more intense. Among the 
fishermen and the sailors who watched the races 
with their cotton cap or oil-cloth hat on one ear, 
there were many who would have been ready to 
risk their five-franc piece to see the Frenchman 
beat the English. And yet, God knows how 
dearly the Norman loves his dollars. 

As has been mentioned, there were eight 
hurdles, of which the last, for the greater delight 
of the spectators, had unfortunately been put up 
too close to each other. They were just oppo- 
site the terrace of the Hotel de Paris, facing the 
Casino, and thus very near to the tribune. The 
eighth hurdle, that stood close by the winning 
post, was a barrier of planks, three feet and 
a half high. This obstacle was particularly hard 


50 


Romance of Trouville . 


to overcome on account of the soil, as the horses 
hoofs were apt to sink into the sand. 

After several false starts, the cry at last arose : 
<4 There they go !” Everybody on the tribune 
rose and bent forward. The ladies got on their 
chairs, the men climbed on the fence. Now the 
horses turned the corner ! M. de Cobrizo led, 
then came Messrs. Gavary and Lindsay. The 
latter was carefully husbanding the strength of 
ihis horse. At the last but one hurdle, Gavary 
took the. lead, and reached the plank-fence at an 
amazing pace, whipping his horse, which wanted 
to dodge. At the moment of jumping, Blue- 
Bonnet suddenly stopped, turned half round and 
rose straight up on its powerful haunches. M. 
de Cobrizo’s horse refused in the same way. 
M. Lindsay, calmer and more experienced, 
approached at an ordinary hunting-pace, but 
when he saw that Rene, who had recovered con- 
trol of his horse, was going ahead, he also 
rushed forward at a tremendous pace. The two 


The Race . 


5i 


men jumped at the same time. Under the influ- 
ence of whip and spur, Blue-Bonnet rose on all 
fours and went across like a squirrel ; thus he 
was the first to reach the winning-post. M. 
Lindsay’s horse, on the contrary, having taken 
time, like most Irish horses, to “gather itself,” 
lost two lengths. Spencer arrived third. The 
American had lost all chance of winning when, 
at the second hurdle, Garton’s horse had fallen. 
He had remounted very promptly, but had lost 
too much by the delay. M. de Cobrizo’s horse 
refused to the end, and this angered him so 
greatly that, when he had alighted, he drew a 
knife from his pocket and thrust it into the poor 
animal’s chest. Fortunately somebody seized 
his hand in time and thus the wound was not 
dangerous. Universal indignation, however, 
met this act of savage brutality. 

In his furious rage, the Portuguese cast tiger- 
like glances at the crowd, from which cries of 
indignation burst forth, and threatened with his 


52 


Romance of Trouville. 


whip some that stood near him. As patience 
is not an eminent virtue with Norman sailors, he 
would certainly have fared badly, if some of his 
friends had not interposed between him and his 
adversaries. They took his whip from him and 
finally succeeded in carrying him away, looking 
more like a ferocious wild beast than like a 
human being. 

In the meantime the authorities had conferred 
the wreath and the bouquet upon the successful 
man, and explained to him that he might, more- 
over, choose a lady to whom he would give the 
wreath and the riding whip, which formed the 
first prize. After a moment’s hesitation, Gavary 
ascended the steps, and as he approached, the 
curiosity became great and universal. The 
ladies were all the more interested in the ques- 
tion, as Gavary was a remarkably good-looking 
man. Without possessing Bailly’s regular fea- 
tures, or the aristocratic beauty of Lindsay, he 
had that mysterious something about him, which 


The Race. 


53 


pleases everybody, but especially the women. 
At this instant, however, a sardonic smile, which 
curled his lips, detracted something from his 
usually sad and haughty expression. As he 
bowed in passing to Mme. de Brinavan and her 
nieces, people thought he would stop there, 
but he went on with an air of great indifference. 
Then, moving a chair out of his way, he mounted 
higher and approached a lady who sat on the 
topmost bench. Her loneliness up there, as 
well as her somewhat loud costume, indicated to 
the initiated at once, the class to which she 
belonged. He bowed to her with exquisite 
grace, and offered her the bouquet in a phrase 
so well-turned, that it might have done honor to 
his grandfather, when he commanded the King’s 
Life-Guards. 

At this unexpected triumph, the young woman 
blushed with delight. A murmur of disap- 
proval, however, arose on the stand itself, and 
several persons broke out in an affected laugh. 


54 


Romance of Trouville . 


When he heard this, Gavary drew himself up to 
his full height and looked fixedly at two or three 
young men who were specially loud in their 
demonstrations. This look was so stern that 
their hilarity ceased instantly. The women 
alone, strong in their weakness, continued to 
whisper with that intrepidity of their sex, which 
a whole battery of guns would not keep from 
repeating some slanderous gossip. But in this 
case, it must be acknowledged, the fair sex were 
right. To have taken the trouble of weaving a 
wreath of flowers, and of making up a great bou- 
quet, and then to see it handed over to a person 
of somewhat doubtful character, was worse than 
an offence — it was humiliating; and that is a 
thing which the daughters of Eve never forgive. 
Nor could it be said that M. de Gavary might 
have made a mistake ; there was in his selection 
an intentional impertinence, and a breach of all 
the rules of good society. 

“Did I not tell you he was a scamp ?*' cried 


The Race . 


55 


Mme. de Brinavan, using a much stronger word. 
The nieces were silent, but both were deadly 
pale. Mme. de Cobrizo’s beautiful lips spoke of 
contempt, but poor Laura hid her face, as if she 
had been Rene’s accomplice. Soon Gavary 
came down again, his head high, and passed in 
front of the great ladies. They met him with 
crushing looks and ironical smiles. He pre- 
tended not to notice this, and went straight to a 
group of young men, to whom Bailly was trying 
to explain Gavary ’s incomprehensible step. But 
he met with no success. They were all his 
rivals in the race, and filled with spite on 
account of his easily-won victory ; while Charles 
himself, in his heart, knew not how to justify his 
friend’s strange selection. “ Come,” he was say- 
ing, “ you are ten against one, and you do all the 
talking. How on earth can I reply? I have 
known Gavary a long time and — ” 

“ Thank you, Bailly !” said Gavary, putting his 
hand on his friend’s shoulder ; “ thank you ! 


56 


Romance of Trouville. 


Now leave it to me to settle with these gentle- 
men. Some of you gentlemen have declared a 
short time ago, I am told, that you could not 
permit such an impertinence as I have com- 
mitted ! I am ready to give you satisfaction, if 
you will have the goodness to make yourselves 
known to me.” 

A moment’s silence followed, during which 
Gavary looked haughtily at his enemies, espe- 
cially as those whom he had heard cry out most 
lustily. Then he repeated : “ Well, gentlemen, 1 
am waiting. Which of you spoke of * imperti- 
nence ?’ ” 

“ l did !” cried M. de Cobrizo ; happy no 
doubt to be able to give utterance to his wrath. 

“ Ah ! You did — did you ?” repeated Gavary, 
making the man cast down his eyes before the 
fire that was burning in Gavary’s eyes. 

“ I did not use the word ‘impertinence,’ ” said 
Mr. Lindsay, “ but I thought your behavior very 
improper, and I was going to tell you so !” 


The Race. 


5 1 


Two more gentlemen said the same. They had 
spoken very temperately, but as the loudest 
criers, as usual, backed out at the critical 
moment, they thought it their duty to come for- 
ward, and thus went farther than they would 
otherwise have done. 

“Very well, gentlemen,” said Ren6, smiling 
most naturally and calmly. “ I see you are four ; 
the only thing to be done is for you to cast lots ; 
then I shall meet No. i first, after him No. 2 , and 
so to the end — provided I am allowed to live so 
long,” he added with a smile. 

They bowed, thus silently accepting the offer. 

“You, Bailly, will be my second, I hope?” 
Ren£ asked. “ Of course !” was the simple but 
prompt answer. “ And you, Garton, will you 
also do me that favor?” 

“ Now that would be funny indeed,” mur- 
mured Charles, who had noticed Garton among 
those who accused Gavary most loudly. 

“Good God, my dear Sir!” stammered the 


58 


Romance of Trouville . 


dandy in his embarrassment. “ Nothing would 
give me greater pleasure, but I am intimate with 
all these gentlemen, and I should not like — in 
fact, 1 think— yes, I really think you had bet- 
ter—” 

“ Let us say no more !” here Ren£ interrupted 
him, laughing ironically and looking around till 
his eyes fell upon a little lieutenant of dragoons, 
who stood watching the scene, with both hands 
in his pockets. 

Ren<§ quickly decided, and walking up to him, 
he said : 

“ Sir, you have no doubt heard what has been 
going on here. I am M. Rene de Gavary. I 
have been in the service, first at the Polytechnic 
School, then as a midshipman in the Navy. 
Although I have not the honor of being known 
to you, I do not hesitate to ask a brother in arms 
to be my second.” 

“Certainly, sir!” replied the young 


man 


The Race. 


59 


instantly ; “ I am Richard de Bauron and at 
your service !” 

“ Thank you!” said Rene, and the two shook 
hands most cordially. Then he introduced his 
two seconds to each other, telling them that 
they were free to settle the conditions of the 
combat. 

“ Nevertheless,” said the lieutenant, “ it may 
be well for us to discuss the matter a little 
between us, before we meet the adversary’s 
seconds. Shall we take a turn on the terrace ? 
1 confess 1 am dying with thirst.” 

“So am I,” added Bailly, “and I believe half 
the world is in the same predicament, with this 
sun burning down upon us these three hours.” 

“ I’ll go with you,” said Ren6, who had come 
seven miles on horseback in the sun and riding 
fast. 

When Ren£ with his two seconds appeared at 
the Casino, there was quite a crowd assembled 
there. He instantly went upstairs to the kind of 


6o 


Romance of Trouville. 


a bar established in a corner of the covered part 
of the terrace, and suddenly found himself face 
to face with an elderly lady, whose noble and 
benevolent face struck him at the moment when 
she called him by his name. 

Ren6 recognized an old friend of his family 
and blushed deeply as she, the Marchioness of 
Vareil, offered him her hand, which he kissed 
with a feeling of reverence. She came to Trou- 
ville every summer, was as good and pious as 
she was rich and charitable, and owed the 
exalted position which she held here as in Paris, 
to her historical name, as well as to her innate 
goodness. 

“ Here you are, you bad boy,” she said, 
threatening him with her finger. “ Come here 
and let me scold you ; but first, give me your 
arm, lest you escape me! Come, Rene, what is 
this foolish step you have taken that sets all the 
tongues to wag?” 


The Race. 


61 


“ Permit me first, Marchioness, to inquire how 
you are ?” 

“ My health, I fear, is better than yours, child, 
for you are sadly changed and very thin. But 
first tell me why you went just now and allowed 
yourself to be compromised by accepting a 
wreath from one of those creatures with whom 
we never can have anything in common ? Did 
you know her before ?” 

“ Never saw her !” 

“ Then she is probably very beautiful?” 

“ To tell the truth, I never looked at her!” 

“ You seem to be a cool lover. Why then did 
you choose her ?” 

“ A notion that came into my head !” 

“Ah, my poor friend, I am told that of late a 
good many such notions have come to you ! 
How could you, whom I used to know as so 
amiable and so distinguished a young man, how 
could you ever stoop so low to a woman who 


62 


Romance of Trouville, 


is barely good enough to blacken your coach- 
man’s boots? Come, tell me, Rene !” 

“ I shall take good care not to do that. I do 
not wish in the least to make you angry with 
me. But let me tell you that these women are 
not really bad ; they may be free and easy, but 
they are perfectly virtuous and have their mod- 
est but respectable positions in life. It is only 
because of the contrast in dress and in manners, 
that our friends venture to speak ill of them. 
Besides — ” 

“Oh, come, Ren6, be frank! Tell me can- 
didly, what is the matter with you ! 1 see, of 

course, that you chose one of these little shop- 
keepers’ daughters or seamstresses merely to 
spite certain friends of ours. But why ? Have 
you played high with some ladies’ hearts and 
lost ?” 

“ Perhaps so !” Ga vary replied with a forced 
smile. 

“ Fortunately, God has placed the remedy by 


the side of the evil. Love another woman, my 
friend, and you will soon forget your grief about 
the first one.” 

Ren£ only sighed. “ Well then,” he continued, 
after a moment’s silence, “ if I have sinned, let 
me expiate any crime. You know the poor of 
this country. Will you take it upon yourself to 
distribute among them these banknotes, which 
the races of to-day have brought me in?” 

“What? Four thousand dollars!” cried the 
old lady. “ You are mad, Rene !” 

“Not in the least! This is the first sensible 
thing I have done for some time !” 

“ This is too much, my friend. I cannot accept 
such a sum !” 

“ Would you rather see it go to the infidels ?” 

“ What infidels ?” 

“ Those sharks who assemble here, as at all 
fashionable watering-places, to strip young men 
of their money and their — ” 

“ Enough !• enough ! I consent, for I see I 


6 4 


Romance of Ti'ouville. 


must. But, to reward you and at the same 
time to convert you, I shall present you to two of 
the prettiest woman at this place,” she said, 
pointing at Mme. de Cobrizo and her sister, 
who were very near to M. Gavary by this time. 

Ren£ made an effort to escape, but his old 
friend was prepared and held on to him laugh- 
ing. On the other hand, when Mme. de Brina- 
van caught sight of Ren£, she drew herself up 
like a crane that is going to rise on its wings. 
The pleasure of being seen in company with the 
marchioness, who was so very reserved, got, 
however, the better of her pride, and she was 
soon overwhelming the great lady with her rev- 
erences and compliments. Gavary exchanged a 
few words only with the sisters. For at the first 
moment the three young people had apparently 
been greatly embarrassed. Ren£ looked terribly 
pale and so deeply moved that it did not occur 
to him how strange his position was, standing 
before the lady whose husband he was to kill, 


The Race . 


65 


perhaps, on the following day. Hermance, also, 
had turned pale and kept her lovely eyes immov- 
able, fixed on the ground. Laura, although 
greatly excited, was yet the first to open the 
conversation. 

We are so glad to see you here, Rene,” she 
said, offering the young man her pretty hand. 
“ It is so long since we last met!” 

She spoke with so much frankness and kind 
feeling that Rene, in spite of his misanthropic 
notions, could not help replying pleasantly to 
the charming young girl. After a moment’s 
hesitation, the married sister also gave Ren£ the 
tips of her fingers, which he let drop instantly. 
“ What has become of you ?” asked Miss Holmes 
to break the embarrassing silence. “It is three 
years now that you have given us not a sign of 
life, never answering the many letters we wrote 
you. Did you get them at least ?” 

“ Yes, Miss Laura, and I cannot tell you how 


66 


Romance of Trouvilte . 


deeply I was touched by that in which you told 
me of the death of my dear mother.” 

This allusion brought a tear to Miss Holmes’ 
eyes. “ Ah !” she said, “ in speaking of Mme. de 
Gavary, my heart spoke. She was so kind, so 
lovable, so benevolent. The years I spent at 
her house were the happiest of my whole life ! 
We two sisters can and will never forget what 
we owe to the dear old lady ?” 

“We forget everything,” Ren£ murmured 
bitterly. Hermance blushed. She looked 
rather haughty and went up to her aunt. 

“ You have a very bad opinion of the world !” 
said Laura, with a voice full of sadness. “ 1 
should be greatly grieved, if I thought you were 
speaking in earnest.” 

“ What I said was not meant for you, Miss 
Laura !” Rene answered very gently. “ I think 
you are good and sincere.” 

“ True ?” 

“ I swear it!” he said, offering her his hand, 


The Race . 


6 7 


into which the young girl let her own fall 
gently, and when she withdrew it again. She 
blushed violently. 

“ Is peace concluded and signed,” she contin- 
ued. “ I mean general peace ?” 

“ Do you not remember that formerly you 
and I were invariably allies?” he said, avoiding 
a direct answer. “ And that, when you and 
Hermance had your own little quarrels, I always 
was on your side ?” 

“ Yes, that is so ! I remember one day you 
would not speak to her almost a whole day, 
because I had given my embroidered handker- 
chief to a beggar woman, and my sister scolded 
me unmercifully for such a foolish thing !” 

“ Ah ! that was in the days of Susan, your 
maid !” 

“ Yes ! By the way, do you know how she is 
now ?” 

Qh, very well ; but you ought to knqw, for 


68 


Romance of Trouville. 


she told me you were sending her money and 
other presents every month." 

“ I owe her that, although formerly I was no 
favorite of hers. In fact, I was nobody’s favor- 
ite," she added sadly, “ excepting always your 
dear mother, Rene." 

“ Oh, I know that ! She often told me so !" 

“1 was so fond of her!" murmured Laura. 
Then she continued eagerly, “ And do you 
remember our excursions to the Island of the 
Swans, opposite the park ?" 

“ And those to old Mathurin’s farm ?" 

“ How happy he must be now, having both of 
his daughters married and living near him !" 

“ Who told you that?" 

“ My familiar demon !" 

“ I know who your familiar demon is. Your 
heart ; for I see you have forgotten no one !" 

‘‘That would be very ungrateful in me !" she 
replied almost anxiously. 

He hung his head, and suddenly fell back into 


The Race . 


69 


his sombre and melancholy humor. She 
watched him for some time in silence. Her 
married sister kept her eye on them both, while 
she was apparently listening to the conversation 
which the two old ladies were carrying on. 

“ What are you doing now,” Laura suddenly 
asked. 

“ I hardly know. I have no fixed residence. 
I stay sometime in Paris, then in the country ; 
sometimes, as you see, at the watering-places.” 

“ And you do nothing ?” 

“ Oh, yes, as you see, I am ruining myself !” 

“And when — ” she hesitated for a minute — 
“ and when it is all at an end ?” 

•* I have put my money in one scale and my 
health in the other, and I manage to keep the 
two well balanced, so that when one is empty 
the other will be empty too.” 

“ But suppose you should be mistaken, and the 
scale on which you keep your health should get 
empty less quickly ?’ 


70 


Romance of Trouville. 


“ I would upset it !” he answered carelessly, 
but with an accent which showed that he was 
firmly convinced he would do what he said. 

“ Oh, M. Gavary !” she exclaimed reproach- 
fully, and her eyes filled with tears. 

At this moment his two seconds came upon 
the scene and made signs that they wished to 
speak to him. He begged Miss Laura to excuse 
him, and joined them as they sat down on the 
upper terrace, in a cozy and almost concealed 
corner of the Casino-building. “ Everything is 
in order. We have just settled it all with 
the seconds of your adversaries, Messrs. Strettel 
and Baron Lassy ; but there is a difficulty !” 

“ What is it ?” 

“ The seconds on the other side claim that 
their party, being the insulted man, he has the 
right to choose the weapons.” 

“Well?” 

“ We, on our side, maintain that the insult is 
a purely imaginary thing. If I take it in my 


The Race . 


7i 


head to be displeased because you wear a gray 
hat instead of a black one, does that give me the 
right to complain of you as insulting ?’’ 

“ Phaw !” said Ren£, impatiently. “ I do not 
care ! In fact, I should not wonder if they were 
right. I must confess 1 behaved very unpar- 
donably. Therefore, you may just as well let 
them have the choice, of weapons. I agree to 
all, except to swords.” 

“ Why to sw T ords ?” 

“ I do not care if they kill me, but I do not 
like to be carved while I am still alive.” 

After a few more words, Ren£ left them to say 
good-bye to the ladies, with whom he had been 
speaking before. He was struck with the 
change in Laura’s features. 

“ M. Ren<§,” she said, evidently greatly excited, 
“I have heard your whole conversation !” 

“ From here ?” he asked, rather surprised. 

“ No !” she replied, blushing violently. “ I 
went into the dining-room and stood there, 


72 


Romance of Trouville. 


behind that window. I feared your friends had 
come on some such errand. And you will 
really fight to-morrow ?” 

‘ It looks so !” 

“ With four adversaries ?” 

“ So it seems ! They ought to have their cor- 
poral, you mean, perhaps?” 

“ Oh, M. Ren6, how can you have the courage 
to laugh when we are speaking of so very sol- 
emn an act? If your dear mother were still 
alive !” 

He hung his head and said nothing. 

“ You mean to let them kill you ?” she asked. 

He simply shrugged his shoulders, as if to 
indicate that it did not matter as far as he was 
concerned. 

“ And the companions of your youth ?” 

A bitter smile appeared on his lips. “ They 
will marry and forget me,” he murmured at 
last. 

“ No!” she replied, with great energy. “ No ! 


The Race . 


73 


You do them injustice, M. Ren£. Oh, if I had 
some influence over you ! Hermance !” she 
said, rising and taking her sister’s arm to keep 
her near her, “ M. Gavary is going to fight four 
duels to-morrow ! Come and help me to dis- 
suade him from carrying out such a cruel pro- 
ject.” 

For once Hermance was deeply moved, and 
tried to say a few words to the young man, but 
his bitter replies and his ironical smile discour- 
aged her promptly. She returned to her aunt, 
but in spite of the attention which she appar- 
ently lent to Mme. de Brinavan’s words, she 
managed not to lose a word of the conversation 
between Laura and M. Gavary. Ren6 could not 
help being deeply touched by the sympathy of 
the charming young girl. He took her hand and 
pressed it affectionately, but, of course, he was 
unable to make her any promise. 

His position was all the more embarrassing as 
one of his adversaries was the brother-in-law of 


74 


Romance of Trouville. 


his young friend, and the sudden coming up of 
the Portuguese might lead to some very dis- 
agreeable scenes. He determined, therefore, to 
leave Mme. de Vareii and her old friend. He 
bowed formally to Mme. de Cobrizo, and shook 
hands very cordially with her sister, turning 
away so as not to see the young girl’s imploring 
glances. 

In the evening Ren£ came back to the Casino, 
but instead of going into the ball-room, he 
remained on the terrace, looking in upon the 
dancers from time to time. Gradually the sight 
of all these happy young people, who were danc- 
ing and enjoying themselves, increased his 
sadness. He sat down in a recess and gave 
himself up to one of those attacks of silent des- 
pair and concentrated rage, which of late had 
become quite frequent in his life. At the end of 
an hour he rose and determined to go home. 
He went to bed, but soon found himself too 
greatly excited to be able to sleep, and gradually 


The Race . 


75 


the hour approached when he had to go to the 
meeting. 

Gavary looked so worn out and undone when 
he appeared at the appointed place, that his 
friends advised him to postpone the meeting till 
the next day, but he thanked them, smiling bit- 
terly. 

“ When I once feel the weapon in my hand, 
I’m another man,” he answered. “ There are 
my adversaries, I see, and their seconds. Let 
us go and meet them !” 

The four men on the other side had waited for 
Gavary ’s appearance to settle the order in 
which he was to fight them. They put four 
tickets with the four names into a hat and drew 
them out one by them. M. Veillan drew the 
first, Mr. Farrier the last, M. de Cobrizo and 
Mr. Lindsay came between. As Ren£ had left 
the choice of weapons to his adversaries, all 
except the first chose pistols; M. Veillan 
demanding the sword. M. Gavary ’s seconds 


76 


Romance of Troriville. 


protested : their man, after fighting his adver- 
sary with the sword would be in a sorry plight to 
shoot with accuracy ; his hand could not pos- 
sibly be steady. The other side agreed to 
invert the order of the duels, but Ren£ himself 
objected, declaring that there was no necessity 
for a change. 

After some trifling preparations, Gavary and 
Lindsay were placed at a distance of forty-five 
yards, with the right to advance against each 
other fourteen yards. Both were perfectly 
calm ; the one from a naturally cold temper, the 
other from indifference to life. When they had 
both advanced eighteen steps, Lindsay fired ; 
the ball barely grazed Gavary’s chest, who had 
stood nearly facing his adversary. He replied 
instantly and touched Lindsay on the shoulder. 
Fortunately it was only a flesh wound and of no 
importance. 

The two men then shook hands. Mr. Farrier 
was called to take his place in front of Ren£, 


The Race . 


77 


while the others were attending to Lindsay’s 
wound. This time the two adversaries, firing at 
a given signal, exchanged shots without any 
result. Farrier proposed to continue the fight, 
but the seconds who witnessed this fight of one 
against four with great disgust, refused posi- 
tively. 

They offered Rene a certain time for rest, but 
he preferred to go on and have it over as soon 
as possible. M. de Veillan and he were nearly 
of the same proficiency in the use of the sword, 
but during the five or six minutes which the 
duel consumed, Rent’s cold blood and indiffer- 
ence to life probably secured him the victory. 
He touched his adversary in the breast ; the lat- 
ter staggered and felt his wound with his left 
hand. For a moment all feared the worst. “ It 
is nothing,” he said, however, to his friends, who 
came running up; “let us go on!” But they 
compelled him to drop his sword, and M. de 
Bauron tore open his shirt to look at the 


78 


Romance of Trouville . 


wound. They found that luckily the sword had 
been arrested by one of the ribs, so that the 
wound, although painful, was not dangerous. 

“ I had a narrow escape !” said the wounded 
man, offering his hand to Ren£, who had been as 
anxious as his own friends. “ No harm done ! I 
begin to think, sir, you will take us all in hand in 
the same way. You fight us so bravely and so 
courteously that, if your adversary were not one 
of my friends, I would wish you good luck in 
your next meeting!” 

After a few minutes’ delay — on which Rent’s 
friends insisted, to give his hand some little rest 
— Cobrizo was sent to face him. This time Ren£ 
no longer bore his careless air ; he was pale and 
his eyes flashed fire. M. de Cobrizo, on his part, 
looked at his enemy with hatred and savage 
threats. They were to fight under the same 
conditions as Lindsay had accepted. Placed at 
forty-five steps’ distance, they were to approach 
each other fifteen steps at a given signal. Ren6, 


The Race. 


79 


standing this time sideways, walked forward, 
head on high and with steady steps. The 
Portuguese, on the contrary, crouching down 
like a tiger that is going to leap on his prey, 
advanced by zigzags, covering his face with the 
butt of his pistol. They were some twenty 
yards apart, when he fired. The ball passed 
very close to Rene, but without touching him. 
Instantly he stopped and took aim at his adver- 
sary. Evidently a severe struggle convulsed his 
heart. “ Why don’t you fire?” cried his friends, 
unable to endure the terrible sight of a deadly 
weapon aimed at a human being. 

“ No !” said Gavary, and fired in the air. Then 
he threw the pistol down with such violence 
that he broke the cock. M. de Cobrizo insisted 
upon another trial, but all four witnesses unani- 
mously opposed the demand. They declared 
that all was over, M. de Gavary having satisfied 
all demands that the laws of honor among men 
could make, and no one had the right to ask for 


8o 


Romance of Trouville . 


anything more. Cobrizo must needs submit to 
this formal decision and devoured his wrath in 
silence, but, unlike the other three young men, 
and in spite of the desire of his own witnesses, 
he refused to shake hands with Gavary. Rene 
seemed to care very little for anything the 
Portuguese might do ; he bowed to him with a 
cold politeness which contrasted strongly with 
the cordiality of his reconciliation with the other 
three men. 

“ I confess,” said M. de Bauron, as he left the 
field with Rene and his other friends, “ at one 
moment I would not have given five cents for 
M. de Cobrizo’s life. You, who are generally 
so calm, were looking at him with a tiger’s eyes. 
Nor can I understand your generosity in the 
east.” 

“ What !” said Rene, with a forced smile. “ Do 
you not see that if I had killed M. de Cobrizo, I 
should have forced the two prettiest women at 
Trouville to go into mourning ?” 


The Race. 


81 


“To be sure ; you are right!” said the young 
officer. “ But who would have imagined that 
you would think of such a matter under such 
circumstances?” 



CHAPTER IV. 

A VALUABLE FRIEND. 

The friendship of an old lady, who is kind- 
hearted, amiable and clever withal, is a rare 
blessing for a young man. Such friendship 
naturally resembles maternal love. Young men, 
at a certain age, come to value their indepen- 
dence so very highly, that they naturally rebel 
against any authority, even that of an old friend. 
But the most sensitive youth, often ludicrously 
jealous of any shadow of control, is sure to sub- 
mit at times unconsciously to the light and affec- 
tionate touch of a woman. 

Such a friendship bound Mme. de Vareil to 

Ren<§. Besides the memory of his mother, 
[82] 



A Valuable Friend. 


83 


which plead for him in the heart of the mar- 
chioness, Ren£ really had something sympathetic 
in him which was irresistibly attractive to the old 
lady. With her long experience, and with that 
power of observing which people of the world 
acquire, she had long since felt that Rent’s sad- 
ness and his foolish acts, sprang alike from 
unhappy love. She had next undertaken to heal 
the wound and to bring her favorite back into 
the world, which he ought never to have left. 
She was mainly afraid that this indifference to 
life and to life’s pleasures, which he did not per- 
haps altogether merely affect, might lead him 
into strange and pernicious associations, which 
are sure to end in ruin and perdition. To counter- 
act such dangers she was anxious to find a new 
sun that might melt the accumulated ice around 
Rent’s heart, and aid the two flowers of Youth, 
Hope and Love, to spring up once more and to 
unfold their full and perfect beauty. 

The movement seemed to be most favorable 


8 4 


Romance of Trouville. 


to force Rene to enter once more into the world, 
to which he naturally belonged with his name, 
his talents, his carriage and the graceful elegance 
of his manners ; he had all that was needed for 
success in a salon ; his romantic first appearance 
and his duels now raised him upon a pedestal, 
high above the other young men. Counting 
upon all these advantages, which his old friend 
was convinced would tempt him to wish to 
shine in society, she invited him to an evening 
party, at which she meant to present him to her 
own numerous friends. She carried her kind- 
ness so far as even to invite the Brinavans and 
the Cobrizos, whom she had till now refused to 
know. 

Ren£ was naturally the lion of the evening. 
Mme. de Vareil, who watched him secretly, saw 
with pleasure that he was not in the least tempt- 
ed to feel proud or to show a sense of gratifica- 
tion even at the many compliments he received. 
He spoke very little, never of himself, and did 


A Valuable Friend, 


85 


all in his power to diminish the importance of 
what he had done. A pleasant feature of the 
evening- was the eagerness with which three of 
his recent adversaries came up to him, shook 
hands with him, and showed their appreciation 
of his noble conduct by treating him like an old 
friend. M. de Cobrizo’s conduct was all the 
more strikingly painful. Alone he refused to 
greet Ren£ and looked sorely embarrassed. His 
wife seemed to share his feelings, and when 
Ren6 came to bow to her, she drew back the 
hand she had perhaps unconsciously extended 
to him. Gavary looked as it he had not noticed 
the gesture, and was all the more delighted 
when Laura came up to him, frankly and affec- 
tionately, offering him her hand and pressing his 
with evident feeling. He paused for a few 
minutes to chat with other young girls, but then 
it was he noticed signs of discomfort and what a 
more conceited young man would have called 
jealousy, on Hermance’s face. Neither Mme. 


86 


Romance of Trouville . 


de Variel nor Miss Holmes failed to see this 
little by-play, so that, when Ren6 returned to 
Laura, she received him with a rather sad smile, 
and as he was just then himself paying-, as usual, 
for any moments free from care and really 
enjoyed, by a longer attack of melancholy, the 
two young people spoke of few but mournful 
and tragic events. M. de Cobrizo, who had 
drawn near to them, in order to overhear the 
conversation, seemed to find special comfort in 
what they said, for he began to look actually 
cheerful and happy. But just then something 
happened that was well calculated to awaken 
his suspicions. In the act of leaving the house, 
he encountered a man in a blouse, who had been 
standing near the house, and pointing at Gavary 
asked him : “ Is that the man ? That man on 

the right?” “ Yes, senor !” said the man, pass- 
ing at the same time twice very near to Gavary, 
whose face happened to be lighted up by the 
street lamp. As the man tried the same man- 


A Valuable Friend. 


87 


euver a third time, he knocked against Rent’s 
servant, and this so suddenly and so violently 
that he came near being thrown down. When 
he recovered a little he was furious and threat- 
ening the servant with his fist, till the latter 
said : “ You badly white-washed creature, 

mind your tongue, and the next time, don’t you 
undertake any more to look into my master’s 
face so closely, or as sure as my name is Mathu- 
rin Lequellec, I’ll send you a broadside such 
as you never got in your life !” The man drew 
back into the dark shadows and disappeared, 
swearing and cursing under his breath. 

Mat Lequellec was a curious kind of a man, 
the son of a breton farmer, he had served Rene 
as a ship-boy, and later as a sailor on board his 
ship. Thus he came to be twice severely 
wounded — close to his young master as he would 
call Ren£ — who in return, learnt to value his 
excellent qualities, so that the two men, while 


88 


Romance of Trouville . 


on board the same frigate, became strongly 
attached to each other. Both left the service 
together, and Mat remained as a servant in his 
master’s house. His devotion was touching and 
in cases of emergency invaluable ; but his ser- 
vices as a house-servant were hardly as useful. 
Fortunately, like all natives of the Bretagne, he 
was fond of horses, and thus made himself soon 
very well known as a bold rider and excellent 
groom. If we add that he was a master of 
single-stick, and made admirable use of the two 
iron fists with which Nature had endowed the 
ends of his two long arms, it will be clear what 
an excellent protector he would make in the 
hour of danger — and so it turned out. His 
frank, open countenance won him the good-will 
of all who came in contact with him ; while his 
enemies — and they were many — dreaded the 
slight ironical smile that appeared at times on 
his curling lips. It spoke eloquently of the 


A Valuable Friend. 


89 


cunning within, which one day made him ask 
his master : 

“ Captain,” he said, giving him a title of his 
own making ; “ Who is that mahogany-colored 
man who just now came out with you and the 
three ladies?” 

“ That is M. de Cobrizo,” replied Gavary. 
“ Why do you ask me?” 

“ Because the other day, when I was rubbing 
down your horse in the court of the Golden 
Arm, that gentleman came in and looked at me 
— then, under the pretext of talking horse to me 
he asked me a flood of questions about you and 
your travels. I saw he was very anxious to find 
out all about you.” 

Rene had other thoughts to engage him at 
that moment and made no reply. He dismissed 
Lequellec by a motion of the hand, and saw him 
put out the lantern with which he had come in 
search of his master, and disappear in the dark- 


ness. 


96 


Romance of Trouvilte. 


Life at a watering-piace has this charm among 
others, that people who wish to meet each other 
can do so almost at any hour of the day. In the 
morning, before a late breakfast, they take a 
walk on the sands or bathe, if the tide is propi- 
tious. From three to six o’clock they seek the 
shelter of the large tent or walk on the terrace. 
In the evening, after dinner, everybody returns 
to the terrace and according to the temperature 
remains to chat out of doors or take refuge in 
the drawing-rooms. Frequently a dance is got- 
ten up, to say nothing of the regular balls on 
Thursdays and Sundays, and other entertain- 
ments. 

As the surroundings of Trouville offer many 
temptations, excursions are continually planned ; 
people go either in carriages and on horseback, 
or they hire steam-launches or rowing boats to 
enjoy sailing. For most people this active life, 
full of unforeseen accidents, has all the greater 
attractions, as generally at least they can enjoy 


A V iluable Friend . 


9i 


every amusement invented by idle people to pass 
the time, without being troubled by thoughts 
about dress and social duties. Everybody is per- 
fectly independent here, and dresses and does 
as he chooses, unmindful of the criticism of 
others. It was this freedom, mainly, which kept 
Ren£ de Gavary here, although he had often 
proposed to leave on the next day. 

In his intercourse with Mme. de Cobrizo he 
continued to show himself the same cold and 
reserved man as before, and yet he seemed not 
to be able to tear himself away from her. He 
found a thousand pretexts to keep near her, 
without apparently desiring to be there. Very 
often, after having spent hours in skillfully 
maneuvring so as to secure a seat by her side, 
he would jump up and leave her with a look as if 
he cursed in his heart the accident that had led 
him there. In order to find a decent pretext for 
keeping near Hermance wherever she went, he 
affected a great interest in the Baroness Qrinan, 


9 2 


Romance of Trouville . 


and at times, in Miss Holmes. Whether the 
baroness guessed his little comedy, or whether 
she did not care to notice it, she certainly 
accepted Rene’s attentions very graciously. 
Her coquettish conduct and the airs of youthful 
simplicity which she gave herself, concealed a 
very careful and prudent heart, and thus she 
seemed to be very well content to have Gavary 
always at her orders, to go out on horseback 
with her, or to waltz or to take a walk. Laura, 
on the contrary, saw through Rent’s manage- 
ment. Although it often saddened her, she still 
received him with the same cordiality and the 
same pleasure. As she was well-informed, as 
well as kind-hearted and clever, Gavary soon 
became fond of her society. Among all the 
young ladies he knew she was the one with 
whom he liked best to converse and to abandon 
himself to the pleasure she gave him. When he 
was near her, he not unfrequently forgot his sad 
thoughts, and was quite surprised to find himself 


A Valuable Friend. 


93 


chatting- and laughing merrily. Unfortunately 
a word or a look from Mme. de Cobrizo sufficed to 
plunge him again into his melancholy and to fill 
his words with bitterness and contempt. 

That day an excursion had been arranged to a 
neighboring castle, whi ch stood some three 
miles from Trouviile,at the end of a picturesque 
valley. Most of the ladies preferred going on 
horseback, escorted by the young men whom 
they knew best. Mme.de Cobrizo took the lead 
with Mr. Lindsay; after them came Laura and 
Rene. Their conversation had fallen upon the 
memory of their childhood, and both had become 
animated in recalling their common reminis- 
cences. Even Ren£ had lost for a time the sar- 
donic expression in his face, while Laura was 
radiant, her violet eyes sparkling with delight 
and with tenderness. Unfortunately Mme. de 
Cobrizo, whether she disliked seeing them enjoy- 
ing themselves so fully, or whether she wished 
to be alone with Mr. Lindsay, gave her horse 


94 


Romance of Trouville . 


the whip and soon disappeared with the young 
Englishman at a turn in the road. 

Instinctively Rene also urged his horse, but 
Laura kept on the same gait as before. “ If we 
were to go a little faster ?” asked Gavary, con- 
cealing his impatience very imperfectly. 

“ As you like !” said Laura, with a sigh. 

As she, however, did little to make her horse 
go faster, the couple in front remained out of 
sight. Laura tried to continue the conversation, 
in which both had been so deeply interested, 
but Gavary seemed to have lost the thread and 
said little. 

“ Let us go a little faster !” he repeated, after 
awhile, instead of answering a question which 
Miss Holmes had asked. 

The tears came into the eyes of the young 
girl. She gave so fierce a blow to her horse — a 
very spirited, young animal— that it reared for a 
moment and then ran away. Ren£ uttered a 
cry and started after Miss Holmes, whorq |iq 


A Valuable Friend. 


95 


overtook the moment she had rejoined her 
sister. 

“ How you frightened me !” he said to her. 

“ Really !” she replied, with some little bitter- 
ness. 

“ How imprudent you are!” he continued. 
“ Why did you whip your Brunette so fiercely ? 
Is she not spirited enough for you, as she is ?” 

“ Pshaw !” she said, with an imperceptible 
shrug of the shoulders. “ The poor creature 
is like others; she suffers for the faults of 
others !” 

Then she walked her horse once more. 
Gavary tried to resume the conversation where 
it had been broken off, but now it was Laura 
who would not do her part and answered with 
indifference. When they reached the ruins, she 
took M. de Bailly’s arm and remained almost all 
the time with him. As for Rene, he was for a 
while attentive to Mme. de Grinan, but in such 
an absent-minded way, that she made fun of the 


9 6 


Romance of Trouville. 


young man. She begged him, laughing all the 
while, to go and sleep a little and then to come 
back with a somewhat brighter face. In his bad 
humor he took her literally, threw himself at 
full length on the soft carpet of moss and tried 
to sleep. But half-an-hour later he was still 
lying there with his eyes wide open and swear- 
ing that he could stand this no longer. In an 
excess of despair, furious against himself and 
the others, he, for no apparent reason, pretended 
to have a violent, nervous headache, and re- 
turned alone, and as fast as his horse would 
carry him, to Trouville. Unfortunately the 
change of place was not productive of a change 
of humor. He tried to read and could not find 
anything to interest him ; he went into the 
great salon, and caught himself telling people 
disagreeable things. At last he took refuge on 
the beach, and seated upon a rock he gave 
himself up to his overwhelming sadness. 

He might have been there an hour, absorbed 



; ' : 

> f>V- 




f _ v< ^ 

% U > s 




WE ENJOYED THE SIGHT OF THE EXPLOSION. — See Faye 153 , 







A Valuable Friend. 


97 


in that immense sadness which the sight of the 
boundless, restless sea produces in the hearts of 
some men, when raising his eyes he found the 
old Marchioness de Variel standing before him. 

“ Dear Count,” she said to the gentleman on 
whose arm she was leaning, “ I give you back 
your freedom. You may go and join your 
accursed smokers and all four of you worship 
your pipes to your heart’s content! Only be 
careful and keep at half-a-mile’s distance from 
me ever after !” she said laughing and shaking 
hands with the Count, who joined his three 
friends. 

“ Well, my poor Rene, here you are, full of 
black thoughts again !” said the dear, old lady, 
sitting down by Rene’s side. 

“ I must confess that, as for gayety, I have 
much to desire,” replied Gavary, making an 
effort to smile. 

“ Yes, indeed ; very much!” she said, “too 
much for your age, my friend. Come, Rene,” 


9 8 


Romance of Trouville . 


she added after a moment’s silence, “you know 
what an old friend of yours I have always been, 
and consequently that it is not idle curiosity that 
tempts me to question you. But can you — will 
you, tell me frankly what has happened between 
you and Hermance before she married M. de 
Cobrizo ?” 

“The wound is not yet healed,” he* replied, 
44 and the thought of what did occur is very 
bitter to me, but 1 am only too happy to be able 
to give you this proof of my confidence in 
return for your very great kindness.” 



CHAPTER V. 

AN EXCURSION. 

Ren£ began : “ Mrs Holmes, the mother of the 
two sisters Hermance and Laura, was a French- 
women and a sister of M. Grodot, that worthy 
merchant whom his ambitious wife has made 
M. de Brinavan. She had been brought up in 
the same convent with my mother, whose best 
friend she was, in spite of the difference in the 
social position of the two families. Mr. Holmes, 
when he married, took his wife to Quebec. He 
was one of those hot-headed adventurers, who 
sometimes make enormous fortunes, but more 
generally succumb in some catastrophe. This 
was his lot. One day he found that he had to 

[ 99 ] 


IOO 


Romance of Trouville . 


suspend payment, but, being an honest man, he 
meant to liquidate all he owed while he yet 
could satisfy his creditors. Under the pretext 
of providing for the education of his two daugh- 
ters, he sent them to France with their mother. 
As they were on bad terms with M. Grodot, all 
three came straight to my mother’s house and 
here they remained. A year later, however, a 
letter came from Mr. Holmes, in which he con- 
fessed that he was ruined completely, and meant 
to leave for the Rocky Mountains, to begin life 
once more as a dealer in furs. From that day 
he has never been heard of again. Rumor had 
it that he perished in a massacre of whites by 
hostile Indians. 

“ You may imagine, Madame, what poor Mrs. 
Holmes must have suffered. As misfortunes are 
said never to come singly, she received a few 
days later the news of the failure of her banker, 
to whom she had entrusted all that her husband 
had left in her hands when he sent her away. 


An Excursion. 


IOI 


A week after, they buried the poor woman, who, 
on her deathbed, had entrusted her children to 
my mother. Hermance was then twelve years 
old, Laura just ten. 

“ You have known my poor mother, Madame, 
and know how kind, how generous she was. 
.Her friend’s children became her own children ; 
she sent them to the same convent in which she 
had received her own education with Mrs. 
Holmes. Every year the two sisters came and 
spent their vacations at our 'chateau of Gavary, 
and for three years I also spent the two 
months’ leave of absence which they gave me, in 
their company. I was at an age when the heart 
blindly demands some one to love, and I fell 
desperately in love with Miss Hermance. 1 
would have abandoned my career, all, only to be 
forever near her ; but my mother was opposed. 

“ ‘ Listen, Ren£ !’ she would say, ‘ although I 
love Hermance dearly, I fear she does not pos- 
sess all the qualities which she ought to have to 


02 


Romance of Trouville. 


make you happy. Still I should not forbid your 
marriage, if you were not, both of you, so very 
young. Before assuming control over a wife, 
children and a household, you ought to be able 
to control yourself and to know something of 
life. I only ask this simple favor: Travel one 
or two years. If, on your return, you still wish- 
to marry Hermance, I promise to give you my 
consent.’ 

“ In spite of my mad passion for her, I felt 
that my mother was right, and I had the courage 
to obey — the courage, I say, for the mere 
thought of leaving Hermance nearly broke my 
heart. She also wept and was distressed — at 
that time she loved me. At least, she said so ; 
and I, fool that I was, believed her. We 
exchanged vows, the most solemn promises, 
strands of hair — we did all that lovers do who 
are forced to part. On the 21st July of that 
year I left on board the frigate Nereid, for a 


An Excursion. 


103 


cruise on the Coast of Africa. I was twenty-one 
years old. 

“ Circumstances, which I need not explain here, 
prolonged our absence, so that we returned only 
after three years and a-half. Although I had 
become very fond of life at sea, I only thought 
of returning to Hermance — my heart had 
remained in France. One day my mother wrote 
me to congratulate me on a great distinction I 
happened to have earned, and mentioned inci- 
dentally that M. Grodot de Brinavan had 
recalled his two nieces. Her heart had bled, 
she added, in parting with them, but as their 
uncle was rich and childless, she could not sacri- 
fice their interests to her affection. 

“ This news frightened me. As long as Her- 
mance was at Gavary, I. knew that my mother 
would watch over her, as I would have done 
myself. Nevertheless I thought even then, that 
Hermance would certainly remain faithful to her 


104 


Romance of Trouville. 


vows, and tried to overcome all sad presenti- 
ments. 

“ But another calamity came to prolong my 
suffering. The Nereid was wrecked in the Gulf 
of Guinea, and as she was a total loss, we had to 
wait four months before we were picked up by 
another ship, and this had to touch at Saint 
Louis on the way home ! Thus I reached 
Toulon only after an absence of four years, and 
at once hurried to Gavary.” 

“ Poor child !” murmured the old marchioness, 
deeply impressed by the despair she read in 
Rene’s face. 

“ My mother had died a year ago,” Gavary 
continued, trying to conceal his deep emotion. 
“ Died, and I had not been there to close her 
eyes! I learnt at the same time that Hermance 
was married. Two months before my arrival 
she had become the wife of Don Manoel Cobrizo, 
a Portuguese millionaire, who was going to live 
in Paris ! 


An Excursion. 


105 


“ I had come home with a heart full of joy and 
happiness ; I had hoped to embrace my mother 
and her whom I considered my betrothed — one 
moment deprived me of all ! I thought I was go- 
ing to be mad. Fortunately an attack of typhoid 
fever came to the rescue and saved me from that 
horror. Now, do not ask me what I have been 
doing since that evil hour. I hardly know 
myself, and am heartily ashamed of all the follies 
I have committed in my despair, of all the 
deadly dangers to which I have madly exposed 
myself. Pardon me, Marchioness,” he suddenly 
said, “ but I have suffered so grievously !” 

“ I know, my friend, and 1 pity you with all 
my heart ; but are you not perhaps unjust to 
Mme. de Cobrizo? Who tells you that she was 
not forced into this marriage ; that a false report 
of your death — ” 

“ Alas, Madame, I told myself all that, but I 
soon learnt the simple truth. Madame de Brin- 
avan, it is true, did her best to persuade Her- 


io6 


Romance of Trouville. 


mance; but the old uncle, on the other hand, 
made every effort to prevent her doing what he 
considered vile ingratitude to my mother and 
myself. He was violently opposed to M. de 
Cobrizo, and only yielded to the urgent prayers 
of his wife and his niece. That is why you see 
M. de Cobrizo, who is so jealous of Mr. Lindsay, 
perfectly indifferent as far as I am concerned/’ 

As he ended his story, some gentlemen saun- 
tered up to present their respects to the old 
Marchioness, and he left the place after Mme. de 
Yareil had most cordially pressed his hand and 
made him promise that he would come and 
spend the evening at her house. 

The next day, when he bowed to Miss Holmes, 
she repented her indifference to the wounded 
heart of the friend of her childhood, and looked 
up at him with eyes that seemed to plead for 
forgiveness. As Ren£, on his side, had 
reproached himself in like manner, Peace was 
soon signed. Gavary remained on the terrace 


An Excursion. 


107 


and quickly became the admired centre of a 
large circle. Miss Holmes put some questions 
to him about his travels which required some 
fuller explanation, and he was listened to with 
growing interest. Even Hermance, who for 
some time had pretended not to listen, was car- 
ried away by the general enthusiasm, and drew 
near, followed by her little court. Once more 
Ren£ was on the point of leaving the place, but 
once more a look from Miss Holmes’ tender 
eyes kept him, and even made him continue his 
story. His success was brilliant, and he at once 
acquired the reputation of a very remarkable 
and most interesting young man. 

Cobrizo, who had also travelled largely, tried 
to compete with Ren6, and began to recite some 
incidents in his roving life. But, aside from the 
difficulty he found in expressing himself in 
French, he did not possess the same liveliness 
and picturesque diction as Rene. In spite of the 
politeness with which they listened to the hus- 


Romance of Trouville . 


10S 


band of a beautiful woman, — especially to a mil- 
lionaire husband, — Hermance soon became aware 
that her husband was not successful in his 
rivalry. She interrupted him with ill-concealed 
impatience and begged him to follow her into 
another room. 

From that moment ill feeling began to prevail 
between M. de Cobrizo, Ren<§ de Gavary and 
Mr. Lindsay. The large fortunes which the lat- 
ter two possessed, naturally gave them a great 
advantage over Ren£, who had but little left 
him. On the other hand, Gavary was largely 
their superior in intellect and, what was more 
important in society, had more winsome and 
attractive ways. He was also in nobility of sen- 
timent and in tact superior to M. de Cobrizo, 
who, but for his millions and his beautiful wife, 
would have been rudely put aside as an ill-bred, 
often discourteous man. But this halo, which 
surrounded him in society, might deceive the 
world at large, but could not mislead the judg- 


An Excursion. 


109 


ment of his own wife or of her sister. They at 
least suffered much under the blunders which 
the Portuguese made, and which all their skill 
did not always succeed in hiding from the world, 
especially when he yielded in public to the 
ungovernable violence of his temper. Of course, 
his wife suffered most when such scenes took 
place in Rent’s presence. He was too well-bred 
to take any notice, but he could not help smiling 
and looking at Hermance in a manner which 
was but too full of meaning for her quick eye. 
She could not help comparing Ren£ with her 
husband, and felt but too painfully the difference 
between the two men. In such cases she would 
turn to Lindsay, whom such evidences of her 
confidence in him made but more passionately in 
love. 

Five or six days after this excursion, another 
on a larger scale was proposed. This time they 
were to go to Etretat, and there to meet the 
guests from all the intermediate little watering- 


I IO 


Romance of Trouville . 


places, as well as visitors in the neigh boring 
country-seats. The project was hailed with 
enthusiasm, and they agreed to go by water to 
Havre, and from there in carriages to Etretat. 
All the friends and acquaintances were at once 
notified to hold themselves in readiness, and 
extensive preparations were made to appear to 
advantage on this crowning occasion, — the 
greatest of the whole season. 

It soon became known that there would be at 
least four or five coaches and breaks with four 
horses each, coming from other places, and on 
this account, and because of the jealousies pre- 
vailing at Trouville, great efforts were made to 
do honor to their place. The ladies were soon 
absorbed in studying their costumes for the 
occasion ; while the men were busy recruiting 
vehicles and horses. On the evening before the 
appointed day, a kind of council was held to 
ascertain their means of transportation. M. de 
Cobrizo and Mr. Lindsay joined forces to put 


A 7t Excursion. 


1 1 1 


each two first-class horses to the landau of the 
former, which the Englishman undertook to 
drive. A second four-in-hand belonged also to 
two young men, and a third consisted of four 
horses, the property of four young men, but 
never before driven together. On this account 
the ladies all refused to go in this coach, leaving 
it to be entirely filled with men. As there were 
still several persons unprovided for, Gavary 
undertook to produce an additional four-in-hand. 

“ With what carriage and what horses, pray ?” 
asked one of the older ladies, rather ironically. 

“ There are, 1 believe, several livery-stables in 
Havre !” replied Gavary, smiling. 

“ They will not have four-in-hands, I am sure !” 
she added discontentedly. 

“I beg your pardon; 1 am sure one will be 
forthcoming.” 

“ At all events it will not be brilliant.” 

“ Probably not ; but a man can only do his 
best !” he replied with imperturable good humor. 


I I 2 


Romance of Trouville. 


Then came the knotty question how to dis- 
tribute the guests among the different vehicles, 
since all the ladies were determined to make a 
triumphant entry into Etretat, although openly 
they insisted that to them it was a matter of 
supreme indifference how they appeared on 
such an occasion. After many discussions, 
more or less animated, Madame de Brinavan, 
who had decided to go with the others, to their 
great consternation, chose her landau for herself 
and forHermance. Mme. de Grinan was not at 
all pleased to see the best places thus disposed 
of, and began at once to pout, and refused to 
choose, saying that she meant to go in that 
carriage which should be rejected by all the 
others. As to Laura, who showed much reserve 
and self-denial on this as on similar occasions ; 
although her aunt made every effort to bring 
her forward, she fell naturally to the lot of Mme. 
de Grinan. As this carriage was to be M. de 
Gavary’s, it may be guessed that her self-denial 


An Excursion. 


”3 


was not on this occasion quite as meritorious as 
usually. When this grave matter was at last 
settled, they began dancing, and the evening 
closed merrily for everybody, except Mme. de 
Grinan, who continued to pout and “ would not 
be comforted.” 

“ I fear,” said Ren£, pointing out her discon- 
tent to Miss Holmes, “ that the prospect of my 
inferior team is rather a grief to the poor lady.” 
“ Oh, no !” said Laura, “ she is only annoyed at 
seeing my aunt dispose of the two best seats in 
the landau. But she is an amiable person and 
to-morrow she will have forgotten it all.” 

“ And you, Miss Laura,” he asked. “ Are you 
not put out by being so ill provided for?” 

“ Not the least !” she answered, laughing. 
“ Provided you do not upset us — that is all I 
shall ask of you. I am sure, however, we shall 
be very well off with you !” she added, uncon- 
sciously speaking with such sweet accents in her 


Romance of Trouville. 


114 


voice, that he thanked her with a look of heart- 
felt gratitude. 

As the regular steamer had left, Gavary had 
to take a little boat, belonging to a fisherman, 
called Tontan, to row him to Harve, in order to 
engage a turn-out. “ Well,” asked the discon- 
tented lady, when she saw him late at night after 
his return from the city, “ what luck have you 

had r 

“ We shall have a tolerable vehicle and four 
quite presentable horses,” was his reply. The 
good lady made a face, but as she was really at 
heart a charming woman, she soon began to 
laugh once more and to make fun of her “ won- 
derful cart.” 



CHAPTER VI. 

A CHANGE OF HEART. 

The joyous band left the next morning by 
steamboat ; the horses and carriages having 
been sent ahead the day before, by rail, with 
orders to be in readiness next morning in front 
of Frascate. This hotel had been chosen as the 
meeting-place for all the guests coming from 
Harve or country-houses in the interior. When 
they arrived at the hotel, they found seven car- 
riages drawn upon the lawn. M. de Cobrizo 
took the lead with his landau ; then came two 
breaks from Trouville, and after them, two 
others belonging to guests staying at Frascate. 
A very elegant and well-horsed country omnibus 

[115] 


Romance of Trouville . 


1 1 6 


was waiting for its owner, the Countess Schw- 
erin, who had come from some distance with a 
few friends. Lastly, a little behind the others, 
there stood a curious kind of fashionable 
“ break/' with four tolerable horses. Although 
very respectable for horses from a livery-stable, 
the poor animals cut rather a sorry figure by 
the side of the highbred horses of the other 
carriages. 

“Is that your carriage ?” asked Mme. de 
Grinan in a very melancholy tone of voice. 

“ I see no other !” replied Gavary. 

The poor woman suppressed a sigh, but 
prompted by her good heart and innate polite- 
ness, she at once added : “ They are not so bad, 

after all. That is better than I expected !" 

“ Oh !’ said Miss Holmes; “ they will certainly 
be good enough to carry us to Etretat, and, 
moreover," she added merrily, “ we are sure they 
will not run away with us !" 

“ Most assuredly not !" sighed the poor lady. 


A Change of Heart. 


117 


Laura and Rene exchanged smiles full of 
meaning and greatly enjoyed the look of con- 
sternation on the face of Mme. de Grinan — a 
spoilt child if there ever was one. But at this 
moment a magnificent blue landau, picked out 
with gold, dashed up on the lawn, drawn by 
four thoroughbreds of English blood. Two 
little grooms in dark blue roundabouts, and 
white chamois-tights, with dark blue caps, sat 
on the near horses. 

“ Oh ! what a beautiful turnout !" exclaimed 
the young men. 

“ They are the Duke of Maran’s horses," said 
one of them. “ I know them." 

“ But that is not his livery," replied Bailly. 
“Who the devil owns this splender?" 

“ Probably some guest at the Hotel Frascate," 
said the other. “ Here is my friend, who will 
be able to tell us all about it, as he is staying 
here too." 

Unfortunately none of these people knew any 


1 18 


Romance of Trouville . 


more than the Trouville guests, till at last 
Madame de' Grinan asked Ren£, who had just 
been speaking to the postillions, if he knew to 
whom this wonderful carriage belonged ? 

“ It seems it belongs to me !” he answered, 
offering her at the same time his hand to help 
her getting in. “ I could not inaugurate it better 
than by having the honor of receiving Miss 
Holmes and yourself in it the first time I use it.” 

“ How you jest !” was the reply. 

“Upon my word, I am speaking seriously. 
Please get in, unless you should prefer the 
omnibus, which I had ordered only as a pre- 
caution in case anything should happen.” 

“To tell the truth, I prefer the landau,” said 
Mme. de Grinan, laughing gaily and jumping 
into the carriage like a child full of delight. 
Miss Holmes took her seat by her; but far from 
sharing her joyous feelings, she became sadder 
every moment. She hardly spoke during the 


A Change of Heart. 


1 19 


whole journey, and left to her companion the 
care of keeping up the conversation. 

“ Since when do you own this establishment?” 
Bailly asked Rene, who had taken the seat oppo- 
site the two ladies. 

“Since yesterday morning!” Gavary replied, 
with a smile. 

“ And how did you manage to get together 
such a superb team so promptly?” 

“ I should never have been able to get them 
together in twenty-four hours,” answered 
Gavary, “ but I happened to know that the 
Duke of Maran, who is going to Rome, wished 
to sell his horses and carriages, and also, that he 
was just now at one of his estates not far from 
Rouen. 1 hastened down at once and bought of 
him the entire turn-out, with the harness and 
everything that belongs to them. Only, as I 
could not let the grooms and coachman — who 
were included in the bargain— wear another 


120 


Romance of Trouville . 


man’s livery, I had two tailors at work all night 
long in fitting them out with new liveries.” 

“ Why, that is grand!” cried Mme. de Grinan. 
“A grand seigneur of the time of Louis XIV. 
could not have done the thing better !” 

Bailly and Miss Holmes exchanged sad looks. 
Both knew that Rene had very little money left 
him, and that the purchase of such an establish- 
ment in his circumstances was an act of absolute 
folly. Laura thought perhaps, besides this, that 
this folly was another proof of his love for Her- 
mance, as he had bought the turn-out only to 
crush Cobrizo. 

At all events, Mme. de Grinan recovered her 
good humor when she found herself seated in 
this superb equipage and amused herself by teas- 
ing Bailly, until he laid aside his sombre looks 
and actually began to fall in with the merry 
ways of the pretty baroness. Laura, however, 
remained silent during the whole journey, and 
all the jests of her companions could not call 


A Change of Heart . 


121 


forth a single smile'on her mournful face. “ Are 
you unwell, Miss Laura?” Gavary asked two or 
three times with great concern. 

“ No !” she replied, trying to smile. 

When the little procession reached Etretat, all 
the bathers were on the beach, some enjoying 
their bath, others interested in a couple of curi- 
ous fishes, which a fisherman was exhibiting in 
his boat. The newcomers hastened down, and 
in the crowd Gavary found means to ask Laura, 
in a voice full of concern and affection, what was 
the matter with her? 

“ I cannot tell you ! What I should like to 
say to you might be inappropriate, coming from 
me, and perhaps you would blame me for my 
presumption” 

“ Certainly not !” he cried. “ I know that what 
you would say could only spring from genuine 
interest in my welfare, and, far from resenting 
it, I would be exceedingly grateful.” 

“ Well, then,” she began, after a moment’s hesi- 


122 


Romance of Trouville . 


tation, “ I am made sad by the folly you have 
committed in buying the establishment of the 
duke !” 

“ Why ?” 

“ It must have cost you a horrible amount ! 
Is it indiscreet to ask you — ” 

“ The price? oh, no! The whole thing, all 
included, costs me twenty-eight thousand 
francs.” 

Laura folded her hands in sorrow. “ Twenty- 
eight thousand francs !” she repeated, “ and you 
told me the other day that you had hardly any 
money left you at this moment.” 

“ Unfortunately that is but too true,” he 
replied, laughing, “ and if I keep this landau any 
length of time, I shall have to eat my horses to 
keep alive ; but I shall take care, 1 promise you, 
to spare the two little postillions !” 

“ How can you trifle so, M. Rene,” the young 
girl said, with a tone of affectionate reproach. 
“ If your poor mother could hear you !” 


A Change of Heart . 


123 


He hung his head and his factitious gayety left 
him instantly. “ Come,” she added, “ let me tell 
you candidty what I think. I know girls like 
myself ought not to speak as I do, but I really 
feel as if your dear mother in heaven were urg- 
ing me to say this. You are committing suicide, 
Ren£ ; and if that does not stop you, think of 
what your poor mother would suffer, if she saw 
your life from her place in heaven. Think of 
the sincere grief which your friends would 
feel, if you were thus to ruin and to kill your- 
self!” 

At the word “friends,” Ren6 almost impercep- 
tibly shrugged his shoulders. But Laura’s eyes 
filled with tears. “ Ah, M. Ren6 !” she said, sim- 
ply, but in a voice of deep emotion and full of 
sad reproach. 

This look and this voice entered into Rent’s 
innermost heart, and he at once repented his 
folly. 

“ Forgive me, Miss Laura !” he cried, seizing 


124 


Romance of Trouville . 


the young girl’s hand. “ I am mad. I am 
ungrateful. I ought never to have spoken thus 
to a friend, as kind and as sincere as you 
are !” 

“ M. de Bailly, also, is a true friend of yours,” 
she resumed, turning her head aside, to conceal 
her blushes and her tears. 

“ That is true. I think he is a devoted 
friend.” 

“ Well, then, if you think we two are your 
friends, why will you take pleasure in distress- 
ing us? If you were merely ruining yourself — 
that is bad enough, of course — but what dis- 
tresses us both is this fixed idea of yours, to 
leave this world. Every such folly grieves us the 
more, because it is a step nearer to your grave. 
You must man yourself, M. Ren£, and manfully 
face sorrow. God has put us into this world to 
look up at the sky, and not to grovel on the 
earth !” 


A Change of Heart. 


125 


“ What a noble and kind creature you are !” 
Ren<§ murmured with heartfelt gratitude. 

“ The question does not concern me, but you, 
hardened sinner !” she went on, trying to smile 
amid the tears that were overflowing. “ Look 
here ; since you believe in my friendship and in 
M. Bailly’s, do one thing for us! Promise us to 
commit no more follies — ” 

“ Heavens !” answered Gavary, laughing, “ you 
ask me to pledge myself — ” 

“ Do you refuse ?” 

“No! no! But you must remember I have 
of late gotten into such a habit of making 
blunders, that I fear I shall begin again without 
knowing it myself.” 

“ Only promise me to think of your dear 
mother in heaven and of us two, — your sincere 
friends, — every time when you are on the point of 
spending money foolishly or of exposing your- 
self to some great danger uselessly. Will you 
promise that ?” 


126 


Romance of Trouville. 


“Very well, then — I will promise!” he said, 
with much feeling, as he put his hand into the 
young girl's hand, which she held out to him. 
At the same time she looked away to conceal 
her tears, and when he asked her, she replied : 

“ I am thinking of your dear mother in 
heaven, and I rejoice in this opportunity to show 
her my gratitude for all the good she has done 
me !” 

Just then several people came up and gave a 
new turn to the conversation. The weather was 
perfectly beautiful, a few white cloudlets alone 
flecked the deep blue sky ; the breeze was so 
gentle, it hardly made any impression upon the 
immense mass of crystal-clear water at the foot 
of the downs, and a few white-breasted gulls 
alone gave life to the silent scene. Some fish- 
ing-boats scattered over the distance, were cozily 
slumbering on the waters. 

In order to enjoy this magnificent sight, the 
little company of travellers had ordered their 


A Change of Heart . 


127 


dinner to be brought to one of those steep cliffs, 
which rise in that neighborhood to a very great 
height, like gigantic ramparts built to protect 
France against her enemies. The greatest 
gayety prevailed during the meal. The new- 
comers from Havre and other places, seemed to 
be very curious about M. de Gavary, in con- 
sequence of the reports which naturally had 
been caused by his eccentricities, and especially 
his four duels. The attentions he received and 
the favorable impression which he was evi- 
dently making upon new friends, spurred him 
on to do his best, and fora time he was brilliantly 
successful. Towards the end of the meal, how- 
ever, his gayety began to decline, and after a 
while he retired silently to a quiet corner. No 
one, however, had remarked his absence, except 
perhaps Hermance and her sister. 

As has been cleverly said, women like their 
admirers not half so much on account of the 
attractions which they see in them as because of 


128 


Romance of Tronville. 


the charms which other women discover in 
them. So it was here, in the case of Hermance. 
She was quite surprised, when she saw all these 
fashionable and distinguished ladies show their 
open preference for Gavary, at not having found 
out his great merits before. She tried to draw 
him into conversation, wishing in her heart that 
she would make all the world aware of the feel- 
ings with which this brilliant young man 
regarded her, who was admired by all of them, 
and whom so many would have been but too 
happy to see at their feet. 

At the end of dinner, when all rose, she died 
with curiosity to know what had become of 
Gavary ; but in spite of all her diplomacy she 
could not find it out, and yet she did not like to 
ask downright. At the same time she was 
afraid of arousing the jealousy of both her hus- 
band and Mr. Lindsay, and thus her wrath was 
great when she saw her sister Laura disappear 
in the same direction in which Gavary had van- 


A Change of Heart. 


i 29 


ished. What had happened to Rene was what 
is the fate of almost all nervous people ; that 
after a moment of great gayety a reaction sets in 
and they succumb to an attack of deepest sadness. 
When he found himself under the influence of 
such sorrowful thoughts, he gave himself up to 
them, and leaving the crowd, took a seat near 
the edge of the rock. Here he was partly con- 
cealed from sight by some masses of rock and 
could undisturbed enjoy the sublime spectacle 
of the ocean spread out before him, without 
bound or barrier. Soon he felt as if his heart 
were expanding in harmony with this vast 
expanse of water, the immensity of which seemed 
to invade his soul, and yet the sadness that had 
brought him here in search of relief, only 
became more oppressive every moment. When 
Miss Holmes suddenly turned around one of the 
sheltering rocks and surprised him, the tears 
were running down his bronzed cheeks. He 


130 Romance of Trouville . 


rose quickly, hiding his face under his handker- 
chief. 

“Poor Ren£ !” she murmured, offering him 
her hand. “ How you love her !” 

1 

He remained silent for a moment, lost in a 
tumult of thoughts. “ Well, no !” he said at last, 
raising his head. “ You are mistaken, Laura ; a 
great change has taken place in my heart, I 
know not how ! But 1 no longer feel there that 
love which formerly was my one thought, my 
one hope !” 

“You no longer love Hermance ? M exclaimed 
the young girl, whose heart was beating vio- 
lently. 

“ In truth, I am afraid of reading my own 
heart. All I can say is that formerly at the 
thought of having lost her love and of her being 
the wife of another man, I shed tears of rage 
and of sorrow, which she alone had raised, and 1 
felt my heart torn to pieces, my soul without 
hope, even without wishes. Well, this is no 


A Change of Heart . 


*3i 


longer the case. I still suffer when I see her in 
another man’s care, I am still jealous, but I feel 
no longer that dull pain that used to torture me 
by day and by night.” 

“ And yet you are jealous ?” asked the young 
girl, whose palpitating bosom betrayed her deep 
emotion. 

* I confess 1 am. I hate her husband. I hate 
that Englishman who is so assiduous in his atten- 
tions — or rather, I did hate them, for all these 
feelings are changed now. In fine, if a fairy 
should come and say to me: You have been 
the victim of a dream.” 

Miss Holmes knew too little of the human 
heart and of the nature of men, to understand 
clearly what this change in M. de Gavary meant. 
But this she felt vaguely, that he had ceased to 
love Hermance. Another faint instinct, no 
doubt, whispered to her, that she herself was 
not entirely strange to this change. 

Deeply moved and blushing crimson, with 


132 


Romance of Trouville. 


tears in her eyes and new happiness in her heart, 
she stood before Rene, who was slowly drinking 
in this enchanting face, to which excitement just 
now was lending additional charms. As she was 
on the point of answering, Mme. de Brinavan’s 
voice was heard from afar, calling out : “ Laura ! 
Laura !” 

“ 1 must escape,” said the young girl. “ They 
might come here to look for me, and I do not 
think you would like, just at this moment, to see 
yourself surrounded by all these people. Look, 
M. Ren£, how beautiful this sky is, how calm 
the ocean ! Neither of the two has kept any 
trace of last night’s storm. So it will be with 
your heart. God will send you happy days to 
make up for the evil days!” 

She accompanied these last words with her 
sweetest smile and her most winsome look ; then 
shaking hands with Gavary, she ran away. 

She had no sooner disappeared than a man, 
who was lying flat on the ground to hide him- 


A Change of Heart. 


133 


self, at a distance of about thirty yards from 
Ren6, cautiously raised his head to look around. 
Rene was following the young girl for some 
instants with his eyes; then he sat down again 
near the edge and buried his head in his hands. 

As soon as the spy was sure that Gavary was 
once more absorbed in his thoughts, he began 
slowly to approach him, dragging himself along 
on his knees and his hands with all the skill and 
patience of a redskin. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AN ENEMY’S WORK. 

An hour had gone by and M. de Gavary had 
not re-appeared ; they began to feel uneasy 
about him. Bailly and others went out to 
search for him. They soon returned without 
him. 

“Just now, as I was walking with Mme. de 
Grinan,’’ said Miss Holmes, “ I saw M. de Gav- 
ary sitting a few steps only from this rock.” 

Bailly ran up to the place indicated, but he 
soon came back, making signs that he had found 
nothing. 

“Did you call?” asked some one. “It is 
P34] 


An Enemy s Work . 


135 


already dark, and you might have passed by 
him, without seeing him.” 

“Oh, yes! I called as loud as I could!” 
replied Charles, “ but no answer came.” 

“ Look !” cried suddenly the same young 
man, who had ventured to the very edge of the 
precipice, and was looking down upon the shin- 
gle. “ What is that lying there on the beach ? 
Is it a man lying down, or sea-tang, or what ?” 

“ It looks to me very much like a human 
being,” said Mr. Lindsay ; “ but he does not 
stir.” 

“ Could it be M. de Gavary ?”' asked the first, 
struck by a strange presentiment. “ Bailly, 
come, let us look !” 

Poor Laura, a prey to new anguish, hastened 
to the place where she had last been with Ren£. 
Almost as soon as she looked, she uttered a 
piercing cry and fainted. While the ladies 
were busy about her, one of the young men 
said : 


136 


Romance of Trouville. 


“ Look here! does not this look as if the earth 
had been recently loosened at this spot, and — 
look here, Mr. Lindsay! here are evidently some 
spots of blood.” 

At the same moment loud cries came up from 
the beach below. Bailly and his friend had taken 
a footpath and run down as fast as they could ; 
they were now kneeling by the side of the man 
who had been seen from the cliff. They made 
signs of distress and called their friends to come 
down. The other young men instantly rushed 
down. When they reached the beach, they at 
once recognized Gavary, whose pale and lifeless 
head rested on Bailly ’s knees. “ Is he dead ?” 
they asked with genuine anguish. 

“ We do not know yet !” was the answer. “ I 
hope not, however. Help us to take off his coat 
and his waistcoat. Let two men run instantly to 
Etretat and being a doctor; at the same time a 
litter and some mattresses. There is no doubt a 


An Enemy s Work. 


137 


Life-Saving Station near here. Get all that is 
needed !” 

Several young men started at once for town. 
Cobrizo and Lindsay remained to help Bailly 
and his friend. Garton, his eye-glass in his eye 
and his thumb in his waistcoat pocket, looked 
stupidly at the men who were busy, and was 
lavish with advice, but careful to do nothing. 
Bonavant had fallen upon the sands and came 
near fainting. They revived him by throwing 
water in his face. 

“ M. de Gavary has been wounded with a 
knife or a dagger,” cried one of the group 
around Rene, showing the place in his coat, 
which was near the heart. “ Why, look here ! 
it has gone through his pocketbook !” He 
threw the coat down and tore the shirt at the 
place where the dagger had gone in. At the 
first glance it was clear that the wound went 
very little below the surface and was not likely 
to be dangerous. The pocketbook that Rene 


133 


Romance of Trouville . 


had had in his breastpocket had served to deaden 
the thrust, and to stop the dagger, which other- 
wise would have gone clear through the heart. 

While one of the men was cautiously probing 
the wound, the others made efforts to recall 
Rene to life. One of them ran for a flacon to 
the ladies, who had remained above on account 
of the darkness, which made the descent by the 
footpath very dangerous. Laura had in the 
meantime recovered consciousness. By a sub- 
lime effort she had succeeded in checking her 
tears and closing her lips ; but when she now 
saw Bailly climbing up painfully, she at once 
guessed his purpose. Wrapping her flacon in 
her handkerchief and the little cravat she wore, 
she threw it down on the sands ; two or three 
other ladies at once followed her example. Her 
sister Hermance had also handed her her flacon 
' to be thrown down, but Laura gave it back to 
her. She fancied Ren£ had thrown himself 
down, being unable to endure his grief any 


An Enemy s Work. 


139 


longer. Naturally, she held her sister responsi- 
ble for his death, and thus could not force her- 
self to accept her flacon and to send it down to 
him with her own. 

Seeing that they could not hear any definite 
account of the state of things below, Mme. de 
Grinan and two other young ladies determined to 
go down to the wounded man and judge for them- 
selves. In vain were all remonstrances. The 
daring young ladies started on the steep foot- 
path and actually got down — thanks to that brav- 
ery which women always display when they are 
called upon to assist a sufferer. Miss Holmes 
and her sister followed their example, in spite of 
all the protestations and cries of their aunt, 
which they pretended not to hear. 

At the moment when these five intrepid 
young ladies reached the place where Ren6 was 
lying, he stirred, but so feebly that at first the 
bystanders thought they had been misled. One 
man, however, put his hand on his heart, while 


140 


Romance of Trouville . 


Bailly held a small looking-glass before his 
mouth, and instantly both of them exclaimed : 
“ He is alive ! He breathes !” 

All hearts felt the relief. A ray of hope 
returned to all eyes. Laura had taken one of 
Rent’s hands in her own and was pressing it 
unconsciously, as if she wished to let all the 
warmth and ail the tenderness of her own heart 
pass into the blood of the young man. When 
the surgeon arrived, followed by a litter and 
mattresses, he found Gavary recovered from his 
fainting. His fixed stare, however, showed that 
he was not yet conscious of his surround- 
ings. 

“ What do you think of his condition ?” asked 
Bailly, while all eyes were fixed upon the man 
of science. He shook his head, pushing out his 
lower lip. “ It is a very alarming case !” he 
said. 

“ Do you find any fracture, any serious 
injury ?” 


An Enemy's Work. 


Hi 


“ Not externally ; at least, I do not think ; but 
what we have to fear is some internal injury. A 
fall from a hundred feet height !” 

44 He fell on sand !” murmured Mme. de 
Grinan. 44 If he had fallen on the shingle, we 
should have found nothing but a shapeless mass ; 
and even as it is, I cannot imagine how the 
unfortunate young man should have escaped 
without a broken limb. Look at that fearful 
height from which he was precipitated !” 

44 His fall may have been broken by that,” said 
Bailly, pointing at a kind of outwork at the foot 
of the cliff, which rose about twenty feet from 
the place where Rene was lying. 44 Perhaps he 
fell first on that!’’ 

44 What is that up there,” cried two or three 
persons, who had with their eyes searched the 
place at which Bailly was pointing. “ Just 
where this kind of outwork connects with the 
cliff — something brown. 


142 


Romance of Trouville . 


“ It looks like a piece of cloth that has been 
caught by a sharp point." 

“ I bet it is a piece of Rene’s coat !" cried 
Bailly. “Just look," he added, picking up the 
coat that had been thrown aside and which was 
now found to want a whole half of the skirt. 

“ Here is the solution of the riddle, doctor," 
said Lindsay. “Evidently M. de Gavary’s coat 
has been caught, in his fall, by that projection 
of the rock, and thus he was made to fall much 
more gently." 

“ Well," cried one of the resident guests, “ if 
that young man escapes, he has been a lucky 
one, for this is, I am sure, the only place along 
the whole coast where the cliff does not rise 
perpendicularly from the beach." 

In the meantime Rene’s friends had put him 
on the litter, and in the transfer he had recovered 
his consciousness. He recognized Bailly, who 
was walking by his side, and feebly pressed his 
hand, which his friend had put into his own. 


A n Enemy s Work. 


143 


Then he looked around vaguely and after a little 
while made a slight motion with his head, as if 
to salute the ladies by whom he was surrounded, 
while a faint smile appeared on his pale lips. 

As soon as the door of his room had been 
closed, all began to suggest conjectures as to 
the manner in which this adventure had hap- 
pened. Except Laura and Hermance, who still 
believed in the idea of a suicide, it was generally 
agreed that Gavary had been stabbed by an 
assassin and then thrown down from the cliff. 
The only doubt was as to the motive of the 
attempt. Everybody waited impatiently for the 
moment when the wounded man would be 
sufficiently restored to speak and to inform the 
police who had, of course, at once appeared at 
the hotel. 

Two hours later Bailly informed the official 
that he might come upstairs and question M. de 
Gavary if he chose. Slowly and feebly the 
wounded man reported : 


1 44 


Romance of Trouville. 


“ I was half lying on the turf, about a foot or 
two only from the edge of the cliff, resting on 
my right elbow, when I suddenly felt a violent 
shock in my left side. At the same moment, 
before I could turn round and look, a man 
whose face was covered with a kind of handker- 
chief or vail, pushed me suddenly off, and hurled 
me down from the height of the cliff.” 

“Do you suspect any one?” asked the 
officer. 

“ No, sir !” 

“ Do you know that you have an enemy, a 
rival?” 

“ No, sir ! Although I may not be on the 
best terms with some persons, none of them 
hates me sufficiently to wish to murder me, nor 
is any of them capable of committing such a 
crime.” 

“ Then you have no idea of the motive the 
murderer may have had in attempting your 
life ?” 


A n Enemy's Work. 


145 


“ I have not 1” 

“ Did he say anything in striking you ?” 

“ No! That is to say — wait — I try to remem- 
ber. I am not quite sure whether I heard him say 
it, or whether it was merely a matter of imag- 
ination — but, just at the moment when I felt the 
blow, I thought I heard the words : ‘ Remember, 
a friend !’ But, really, I am not sure whether 
the words were ‘ a friend ’ or a name of some- 
thing that sounded like it. Yes — wait a moment 
— now I think it over, I am sure it was a name — 
a name I did not know ! Unless — wait — yes, it 
might have been — ” 

“What? Can’t you bring it back to your 
mind ?” 

“ Yes, I have it now. It was the name of a 
factory on the west coast of Africa, where slave- 
dealers went in and out — and which I destroyed 
when I was a midshipman in the Navy. I 
ordered it to be burnt to the ground !” 

The surgeon here made a sign to warn the 


146 


Romance of Trouville. 


police-officer that M. de Gavary began to feel 
weak, and that it would be imprudent to con- 
tinue the examination. 

“ What do you think of your patient ?” the 
policeman asked, when he and the surgeon went 
down stairs together. 

“ So far, I have not discovered any injury cal- 
culated to produce fatal results ; but we cannot 
see what has been done inside ! It will take 
three or four days before we can tell what the 
result will be.” 

Nevertheless Rent’s convalescence progressed 
.so rapidly that he was up and about on the 
fifth day, and only as a matter of precaution he 
kept his room. During all this time he had 
received numerous visits; so numerous in fact 
that the physician had to prohibit them for fear 
of. over-fatiguing his patient. The judge of the 
higher court also came to make some inquiries 
in person, but the result of his interview with 
Gavary was unsatisfactory and the murderer 


An Enemy's Work . 


147 


remained unknown. The only light thrown on 
the subject came from the detail account, which 
this Superior Judge requested Gavary to give 
him, of the factory on the Guinea-Coast. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A LITTLE HISTORY. 

“ I was a midshipman on board the frigate 
Nereid, which was cruising about Gaboon to 
capture slave-vessels, which were then quite 
numerous in that latitude,” said M. de Gavary. 
“ One morning, at sunrise, we perceived some 
miles away on our starboard a schooner, which 
immediately changed its course, and tried to 
show us her heels. This proceeding aroused 
our suspicions and the captain gave orders to go 
in pursuit of the vessel. We followed her that 
whole day. At nightfall she was not more than 
two or three miles from us. *•-- 

“ Under cover of the darkness she crowded 
[148] ' 


A Little History . 


149 


sails, made the coast and hid in a small creek. 
She thought herself safe there, for our frigate 
drew too much water to allow us to follow her. 
But our captain did not so easily give up the 
game. He lowered a long boat with twenty -five 
men, a lieutenant and myself. Just as we 
approached the slave-dow, a storm arose and 
compelled the frigate to seek the open sea. 

“ One of our men, who knew the coast, told us 
that we were close to Anamy, the principal 
factory of a certain Sefior Peralda, one of the 
richest slave-dealers on the whole west coast. 
The schooner no doubt belonged to him, for he 
owned quite a number of vessels employed in 
this abominable trade. As it is very rare that 
slave-ships dare openly to defy the authority of 
men-of-war, we approached the schooner with- 
out suspicion. 

“ Suddenly a broadside came and killed three 
of our men, among them the lieutenant, and dis- 
abled four of our men. Furious at this ambush, 


Romance of Trouville . 


150 


1 took the command. I gave orders to let the 
vessel come up close to us, and then take it by 
boarding. It was a serious thing, for the enemy 
was stronger than we were, and they were used 
to hard work. We noticed, moreover, that a 
boat-load of armed men pushed off from the 
bank of the estuary, evidently to assist the 
schooner. Fortunately I had an admirable crew 
— almost all the men were Normans or Bretons. 
We leapt upon the deck of the schooner, and for 
half-an-hour it was Give and Take ; the fight 
being very hot. At last our superior arms, and 
especially our better discipline, secured us the 
victory ; they hauled down their black flag and 
all were put in irons. During this time the 
tempest had broken forth with the fury peculiar 
to those latitudes. Our boat had sunk a few 
moments after we had boarded the slave-ship. 
Soon her anchors also began to drag and, in spite 
of our efforts, we were stranded on the coast. 

“ Instantly we were assailed by a force of 


A Little History . 


151 


negroes, at the head of whom we saw several 
whites or mestices. In spite of our forlorn posi- 
tion, we had soon put the rascals to flight. 
We pursued them hotly, till they took refuge in 
a kind of small fort near the factory. As we 
had neither victuals, nor clothes, nor ammuni- 
tion even, I thought the only thing left us was 
to take possession of the whole establishment. 
My men agreed readily enough, but we met 
with very obstinate resistance. 

“ Our enemies were commanded by a man, 
who, as I heard afterwards, was the bookkeeper 
of the factory ; he fought like a tiger to the last 
moment. It took us two hours to secure pos- 
session of the fort and the factory. Most of the 
men who defended the buildings escaped under 
shelter of the dark night, and with them three 
of our prisoners. I had hoped our enemies 
would be satisfied and leave us alone, but the 
bookkeeper thought differently. At the mo- 
ment when my men, famished by fasting more 


152 


Romance of Trouville . 


than twelve hours, were ready to fall upon some 
provisions which we had luckily found, together 
with a gallon of rum, one of the wounded blacks, 
who had hid himself in a box, told us that the 
bookkeeper had poisoned both the victuals and 
the spirits. I gave some of both to a dog and 
two monkeys. All three died in a very short 
time. We had to spend the night fasting. The 
next morning, at daybreak, the Nereid had not 
yet re-appeared. The schooner had gone to 
pieces over night, and the wreck covered the 
shore. 

“ Fearful lest the enemies might hide in the 
woods around us, I sent out reconnoitering 
parties in all directions, and placed sentinels 
around the house. It was well I took these 
precautions. The slave-merchant and his book- 
keeper came once more to attack us at the head 
of some men they had gathered from neighbor- 
ing agencies of the great house, which we 
occupied. Once more we beat them and 


A Little History . 153 


pursued them closely, till we reached the near- 
est agency, which we burnt to the ground, after 
having set free some three hundred slaves 
locked up there. 

“ The frigate, which nad been compelled to run 
before the storm, returned on the next day and 
sent us the long boat. A few hours later I 
embarked with my surviving men, after having 
set fire to the factory. As to the fort, in which 
there was a considerable amount of ammunition, 
I ordered several deep holes to be dug under the 
foundations ; these were filled with powder and 
thus blown up. We enjoyed the sight of the 
explosion just as we were getting back on board 
our frigate. 

“ The slave-dealer received thus a severe lesson. 
He lost his schooner, his two establishments 
were utterly destroyed, and the setting free of 
several hundred slaves must have caused him a 
very serious loss.” 

“ Would you recognize the slave-dealer and 


1 54 


Romance of Trouville, 


his clerk, if you were to meet them again ?” 
asked the judge. 

'‘No, sir; they had blackened their faces and 
wore, moreover, broad-brimmed felt hats. From 
the evidence of our prisoners, the bookkeeper, 
whom they called Carlo Straniero, must have 
been an arch-rascal, capable of every crime, but 
brave, determined and devoted to his employer.” 

“ Do you know to what nation these two men 
belonged ?” 

“ Peralda was a Portuguese or a Brazilian. 
As to the other, nothing w T as know about him, 
but he generally passed for a Brazilian.” 

The judge noticed that Gavary began to be 
exhausted, and took leave of him. On his return 
to his office he at once wrote to the court at 
Havre. While informing the Attorney-General 
of the principal points which he had just learnt, 
he requested him to cause inquiries to be made 
if there could be any person at Havre likely to 
be Peralda or his clerk. While this inquiry was 


A Little History. 


155 


going on, which had no other foundation but 
the vague information given by Gavary, the lat- 
ter was delighted to see the day approach on 
which he would at last be free once more. 
Although Bailly was very obliging and con- 
stantly offered to stay with him, Ren6 would not 
abuse his friend’s kindness, knowing how reluc- 
tant he was to leave the Casino when Charles 
came to keep Rene company. He told him all the 
gossip that was floating about in their little 
circle, and brought him the countless messages 
and kind wishes of his friends. Unconsciously, 
on the part of both the young men, the names of 
Mme. de Cobrizo and of Miss Holmes appeared 
very often in their conversation. They almost 
always began by talking about Hermance and 
then Laura’s turn came; here they generally 
stopped. She was Bailly ’s favorite partner in 
dancing, and with her he was generally seen to 
take his walks. He spoke of her with genuine 
enthusiasm, and although at times this irritated 


Romance of Trouville . 


156 


Ren£, he yet let him willingly go on as long as 
he only spoke of her. 

“ One of the attractions which Miss Holmes 
has for me,” Bailly often said to Rene, “ is the 
warm friendship she feels for you. The first 
question she asks me is invariably about you. 
She is so warm-hearted ! Then she comes back 
to you again and again. If you knew how grate- 
fully she always speaks of your mother! Ah! 
what a lovely girl she is ! Only last night she 
was saying to me — ” 

And then he would tell Ren£ some little story 
which made Miss Holmes appear in the most 
amiable light, or he would quote some clever or 
even witty saying of hers. 

Since that excursion to Etretat a great change 
had taken place in Rent’s mind. Although he 
still blamed Mme. de Cobrizo for her faithless 
conduct, he no longer meditated continually, as 
he had formerly done, means to avenge himself, 
or to punish her inconstancy. At the same time 


A Little History . 


157 


the desire grew in him daily to please Laura 
and to thank her for her benevolent interest in 
his welfare. These feelings grew all the more 
rapidly as Ren6 did not think of them. Hence, 
when he obtained permission to leave his room, 
his first thought was: “At last I shall see Miss 
Holmes and thank her ! What impression 
will my re-appearance in the world produce upon 
her? With whom will she like best to talk — with 
Bailly or with myself?” He also pictured to 
himself how he would wound the older sister 
by his contemptuous coldness and his ironical 
compliments ; but this thought, which formerly 
would have overshadowed all others, now 
appeared only of secondary interest. 

His first visit was to Mme. de Vareil, who had 
overwhelmed him with kindness during the 
whole course of his sickness, and now also 
received him with such great warmth of affec- 
tion that he was moved to tears. After his long 
seclusion, her kind words made a deep impres- 


Romance of Trouville . 


158 


sion upon him and he thanked her with effu- 
sion. 

“ Pdor child !” she said to him, looking at him 
with tender sympathy, “ what anxiety you have 
caused us ! Everybody was interested in you. 
Certainly bad young men seemed to have pecu- 
liar charms for our young girls ! I have some 
nephews, whom I love and in whom I am deeply 
interested, and yet not one of them fills me with 
the same affectionate interest which you inspire, 
bad man as you are !” 

She then asked him if he had not yet formed 
any suspicions as to the would-be assassin, but he 
could only repeat to her what he had told the 
judge who had examined him. 

“ Listen, Rene !” she said, after a short hesita- 
tion, “ we are alone and we can speak freely. For 
my part, I can hardly imagine that that slave- 
dealer from Anamy should have come all the 
way to France or should have sent an emissary, 
in order to murder you, after so many years?” 


A Little History . 


159 


“ Great God ! I think so too ; it seems to me 
impossible. And yet, why should that word 
Ananiy , which certainly sounds very much like 
un ami , have made such an impression upon my 
ear." 

“You do not remember, perhaps, that on the 
day on which we had a sail in Mr. Lindsay’s 
yacht, you told us the whole story. It may very 
well be, that somebody who heard you then* 
may have used that word Anamy> in order to 
turn suspicion into a wrong channel.” 

“ Why should he do that, when he thought he 
had killed me.” 

“ He might have missed you ! Those people 
are very cautious !” 

“ Besides, among the persons who were on 
that occasion on board the Trilby, there was no 
enemy of mine, as far as I know.’ 

“ Who knows?” 

“ Great God ! whom do you mean?” 

“My dear friend,” said Madame de Yariel, 


i6o 


Romance of Trouville . 


“ a man who is young and good looking, brave 
and enterprising, who has had such success in 
society as you have had at Trouville — such a 
man has always and everywhere enemies !” 

“ That may be; but their enmity would hardly 
go so far as to murder me ?” 

“ In France that would hardly be the case, I 
admit. But there were foreigners on board the 
yacht.” 

“ Mr. Lindsay and I, we have been rivals,” 
Ren£ replied with eagerness ; “ but although I 
know him but very slightly, I would answer for 
him as for myself !” 

“ Never answer for anybody but yourself, my 
poor child !” said the ola marchioness with her 
subtle smile. “As to Mr. Lindsay, I think you 
are right. But he was not the only one who 
might object to the attentions you paid Mme. de 
Cobrizo !” 

“ Do you mean her husband?” 

“ May be !” 



£ X* 


iSsiSI: 










miss holmes. — See Page 196 




A Little History. 


1 6 1 


“What? You think M. de Cobrizo capable 
of such a crime ?” 

“We cannot judge foreigners by our own 
standard exclusively. Many a stab with a knife, 
which here in France would be murder, is 
looked upon but as a trifle in other countries. 
Besides, i do not like the looks of M. de Cobrizo. 
There is blood in his eyes.” 

“ I do not like his face any better than you 
do,” answered Gavary. “ But even if he were 
capable of murdering anyone — which I doubt — 
what motive could he have ?” 

“Jealousy, perhaps ?” 

“No. It old you before. He detests me ; I do 
not know in the least, why ! perhaps because he 
divines my aversion to him, but I do not think 
he is jealous. Moreover, I hardly ever say a 
word to his wife !” 

“ Except to tell her the most unpleasant 
things in the world in the most polite manner 
possible,” said the old lady, smiling pleasantly. 


162 


Romance of Trouville. 


“ Above all, I must tell you that at the mo- 
ment when I was hurled down from the top of 
the cliff, M. de Cobrizo was in company with M. 
Bailly, and others, who never left him.” 

“ He may have employed some one else to 
strike the blow !” 

“You certainly will have him guilty !” 

“ Great God, no ! In spite of all I have told 
you just now, I do not believe it myself. Only 
as there must be some one who is guilty, he is 
the man I would first and most suspect.” 

After leaving the kind old lady, Ren6 went to 
the Casino, which he found nearly empty. He 
took up the papers and waited impatiently for 
the hour when the world was used to appear on 
the beach. Unfortunately, Miss Holmes did not 
show herself all day long — her aunt had taken 
her with her on a long walk, from which they 
did not return till dinner. He did not see her, 
therefore, until he met her late at night in the 
ball-room. 



CHAPTER IX. 

A NEW COMPLICATION. 

When Miss Holmes perceived Rene, looking 
still very pale, but altogether restored to health, 
she showed in her face and in her tearful eyes, 
such genuine joy, that the young man’s heart 
was deeply touched. Laura had turned pale 
and he told her so. 

“ I have not been quite well,” she said, “ hence 
I do not mean to dance to-night !” , 

“ So much the better!” he thought. “We 
will be able to talk !” But he did not dare tell 
her so, and merely showed it in his eyes, where 
she read it quite as clearly. 

Mme. de Grinan was charmed to see one of 

[163] 



164 


Romance of Frouville . 


her admirers re-appear, and received M. de Gav- 
ary in the most cordial manner. Her gracious 
reception failed, however, to cause Ren£ the 
same deep emotion that Laura’s eloquent eyes 
had produced. She held the young man captive 
for a little while ; but then the music struck up 
and the lively little baronness was henceforth 
occupied with nothing but waltzes, polkas and 
mazurkas. All this time Ren<§ conversed with 
Laura, who plead her fatigue to refuse all invi- 
tations to dance. At the end of the ball the two 
young persons would have been very painfully 
embarrassed, if they had been called upon to 
state the subject of their conversation, and yet 
the time had passed very swiftly. It appeared 
afterwards that Mme. de Brinavan had noticed 
the long tete-a-tite , and in leaving the Casino 
scolded her niece very angrily. But, without 
their knowing it, the two young people were 
henceforth under the protection of the old mar- 
chioness, who thought she had discovered a 


A New Complication. 


165 


budding attachment in Rene, and determined to 
assist him as far as she could. 

Knowing the weakness of Mme. de Brinavan, 
who, as she said, was bursting with vanity and 
tried every means to secure for her Grodot 
admittance to the upper circles, she was all 
amiability for Hildegard. She even went so far, 
in Rent’s interest, as to present to her some of 
her aristocratic friends, bearers of great names, 
who wondered what could be the link binding 
two such different women to each other? But 
whenever the old lady noticed that the aunt 
began to frown at Laura for speaking too long 
to Ren£, she at once deputed one of her old 
friends to soothe the grim lady’s irate temper. 
She, all happiness at being brought in contact 
with many illustrious names, promptly forgot 
her nieces, her husband and all the rest. In 
spite of her watchfulness and kindness, the old 
marchioness could, however, not keep all the 
importune people from interrupting Ren£ and 


Romance of Trouville . 


1 66 


Laura. Miss Holmes had many admirers, and 
her former partners in the dance were by no 
means disposed to let M. de Gavary monopolize 
this charming young lady. Bailly, especially, 
came constantly to keep the two friends company. 
Ren6, in his heart, thought he came far too 
often and, in spite of his sincere friendship for 
Charles, he could not help feeling impatient 
when he saw Miss Holmes receive him invaria- 
bly with her sweetest smile and most gracious 
little speeches. 

One morning, when Gavary was taking a 
walk on the beach, he met Miss Holmes. He 
was struck by her pallor and the sadness in her 
face. Her eyes were red as if she had wept. 
At the time when he had seen her come out 
upon the beach, she was in company with M. 
Bailly, whom she left to join her sister. Gavary 
hurried over to Bailly, but his friend plunged 
into one of the narrow dark streets of that part 
of the town and was instantly lost to sight. 


A New Complication. 


167 


“ What can be going on ?" Ren6 asked, easily 
troubled, as most lovers are. He sat down near 
the dividing line and impatiently waited for the 
return of the two sisters from the grounds 
reserved for women. Unfortunately, two other 
young men, bent upon the same errand, accosted 
the two ladies when they at last appeared ; but 
Laura managed to approach Gavary, at whom 
she looked with sadness. 

“Are you perhaps unwell, Miss Laura ?" he 
asked. 

“ No ! I am only cold, coming out of the 
bath !" 

“ Because I saw you, a little while ago, con- 
versing with M. Bailly, before you went into the 
reserved grounds, and it looked to me — " 

“ I have slept badly," she added, blushing 
slightly, “ besides I am put out, I am vexed." 

“ Why ? What is it ?" 

“ My aunt received a letter this morning 


1 68 


Romance of Trouville . 


which compels her to leave here and to go to a 
country-house she has down south/’ 

“ And when will you go ?” Gavary asked, with 
anguish in his heart. 

“ In three or four days!" 

Ren6 looked dejected and made no reply. 
Like all persons who have suffered much unhap- 
piness, he was prone to see the dark side only. 
This news came upon him like a flash of light- 
ning. Just as he was going to tell Laura what 
he felt, her older sister stopped and remained at 
their side. Was she jealous? or was it merely 
that she did not like Laura to receive the atten- 
tions which had been hers. She repeated the 
news and added that she, for her part, regretted 
very much to leave Trouville, and especially so 
suddenly. These words were accompanied by 
very pointed looks at Gavary, which the young 
man did not notice, but which did not escape 
the younger sister. Laura felt annoyed and left 


A New Complication . 


169 


Rene, who certainly was not responsible for 
Mme. de Cobrizo’s maneuvers. 

When he returned to the hotel, he found 
Bailly waiting for him in his room. “ I came to 
ask you a great favor,” the visitor said, “ and I 
find much difficulty in telling you what it is. 
Pshaw! To the devil with all rhetorical flour- 
ishes! Ren6, I am in love, — madly in love!” 

“Ah!” said Gavary, trembling involuntarily. 

“ I love Miss Laura Holmes.” 

“ And she?” Gavary asked. 

“ She ? Look here, I can tell you, who are my 
old friend and know that 1 am not boastful — 
well, I think she feels sbme interest in me — ” 

“ Ah !” repeated Gavary, in a voice which 
would have told much to a man lesspre-occupied 
than Bailly was at this moment. “ Are you sure 
of it?” 

“Sure? No! A man is never sure of such 
things until they are formally settled— and 


Romance of Trouville. 


170 


besides — but everything conspires to make me 
think so !” 

“ Everything ! For instance ?” 

“ Oh, a number of small things which you feel 
but cannot well relate. In the first place, she 
seems to take pleasure in my society. You did 
not notice that last Sunday, because then she 
was tired and hardly danced at all ; but at the 
other balls, while you were sick, she danced 
four or five times with me — in fact, they teased 
me about it.” 

“ To be sure. I remember having heard some- 
thing of that,” replied Gavary. 

“ You see — whenever there was a vacant seat 
by her, and I came up, she almost always made 
me sit down there. Then her way of talking to 
me — her whole manner — she always asked me 
about things that interested me most — about my 
friends. You were always the first she inquired 
about. What do I know after all? And then 
the way she looked at me — such eyes! This 


A New Complication. 


171 


very morning, when she told me that they had 
to leave here, she was so deeply moved she 
could hardly speak — and I think I saw the tears 
coming — ” 

“ Come ! come!” broke in Rene impatiently. 
“ Let us take it for granted that she loves you ; 
what is that to me?” 

“ How you speak!” 

“ Well, you do not know, but you have kept 
me here a whole quarter of an hour talking 
nonsense !” 

“ Why, Rene ! I had to answer your ques- 
tions! In what a devil of a humor are you this 
morning ?” 

“ You are right, Bailly,” Gavary replied, with 
an unnatural smile. “My nerves, I suppose, are 
over-excited. I do not know why ? But let us 
see now — what is to be the end of it ?” 

“ Well, I wish to marry Miss Holmes!” 

“ Then go and ask her aunt !” 

“ Ah ! she would treat me nicely. Miss Holmes 


Romance of Trouville. 


1 72 


is ten times as rich as I am, and besides, Mme. 
de Brinavan hates me !” 

“ What on earth can I do then ?” 

“ This ! Miss Laura is almost a sister to you. 
I want you to find out for me exactly how mat- 
ters stand.” 

“ Are you mad 

“ By no means ! And if she authorizes me to 
take the steps usually taken in such a case, to see 
her aunt and so on.” 

“ Ask her yourself !” 

“ In the first place that would not be proper, 
and then — why, then, I dare not, I am afraid. I 
must tell you. You did not think I was so 
timid ? I am not, ordinarily. But with Miss 
Holmes, that is another window to look out 
from ! Many a time I have been on the point of 
telling her what I feel in my breast, and always 
when she looks at me with those big, blue eyes 
of hers, I am undone. But you ! you she has 


A New Complication. 


173 


known from childhood up; she will be candid 
with you and ready to tell you—” 

“ What a commission for a young- man !” 

“ You will not do it ?” 

“Positively! No!” 

u And I, who counted upon your kindness !” 
sadly added Bailly. His resigned tone of voice 
touched Gavary. He recalled all the kind 
attentions Bailly had shown him during his sick- 
ness, and reproached himself for his harshness. 
“ Because I am unhappy,” he said to himself, 
“must I therefore refuse to help my neighbor? 
Let me aid them in being happy and then I can 
go somewhere and be shot down like a dop- 
Then, at least, they will think of me— they will 
be compelled to remember me. Charles,” he 
said after a pause, “ do not take it too much to 
heart. Sfnce you attach such value to it, I will 
do what I can, I will try.” 

Bailly threw himself on his neck and thanked 
him effusively. “When will you see her?” 


174 


Romance of Trouville . 


he asked with all the impatience of an ardent 
lover. 

“ To-morrow — or the day after!” 

“Ah, my friend, that will be too late !” cried 
Charles. “ Can you not try to speak to her 
to-day V 

“ If you wish it !” said Ren<§ sadly. 

In the afternoon he met Miss Holmes, who 
was talking to some young men about a promen- 
ade on the beach. They were to return on the 
heights and pass by the coast-guards’ house on 
the cliff. Ren£ was asked if he would accom- 
pany them and he accepted eagerly. A few 
moments’ later Laura and he found themselves 
together, a little in the rear of the others. 
“ How pre-occupied you look !” Laura said smil- 
ing. 

“ I am so !” replied Ren£. “ I have taken 
upon myself a commission which I now do not 
exactly know how to discharge.” 

“ May I ask whom it concerns ?” 


A New Complication. 


175 


“ Even you yourself, Miss Laura ?” 

44 Me ?” 

“ Great heavens! Yes ! Now that the ice is 
broken, I may as well go on : What do you 
think of M. Charles de Bailly ?” 

41 He has an excellent heart!” eagerly replied 
Miss Holmes, who liked Bailly mainly because 
of his friendship for Gavary. 

“ He is clever, he is quick, and very good- 
looking, which is not to be despised !” 

“ Certainly !” she said laughing, “ not to speak 
of his admirable playing of waltzes !” 

“ That is another shining quality !” said Ren6, 
trying to smile. “ Well, Miss Laura, do you 
not think a woman would be happy with him ?” 

“ Certainly — but why do you ask me that 
question ?” 

“ Because — well, Bailly thinks of marrying.” 

“ Marrying V* murmured Laura in a low tone ; 
she began to guess Gavary’s purpose, and felt as 
if she had received a blow. But Ren£, bearing 


Romance of Trouville . 


1 76 


in mind what Bailly had told him, misinterpreted 
her emotion and looked upon it as a proof of 
her feelings for his friend. 

“ Yes, my dear little sister,” he said, making a 
great effort and calling Laura by the name he 
used to give her when they were both children. 
“ Yes, Bailly is in love, and like all people whose 
heart is in earnest, he is bashful and cannot pre- 
vail upon himself to ask the lady he loves. 
Before appealing to her family, with whom he 
does not exactly enjoy the odor of sanctity, he 
would like to know if he may venture to hope — 
in fine, Bailly loves you, and — ” 

“And you have undertaken to tell me so!” 
exclaimed Miss Holmes, her face burning 
crimson and her eyes filling with tears. 

“ Do not blame me, dear little sister,” resumed 
Gavary, still misinterpreting this sudden excite- 
ment. “ I know the step I am taking is 
unusual, perhaps out of place, but as poor 
Charles had not the courage to speak for him- 


A New Complication. 


177 


self, somebody must needs do it for him, since 
you leave us so soon. Therefore he asked me, 
whom he considers his friend. He knows that 
we have been brought up together, and that you 
look upon me as a brother, and that — ” 

The poor fellow had to stop ; he was almost 
suffocated by the deep emotion he felt, and 
which he tried hard not to reveal. 

“As a brother!” Laura repeated almost 
mechanically. She also would have burst forth 
in sobs if her pride had not come to the rescue 
and helped her to control herself. “ But,” she 
added, yielding in spite of herself to her irrita- 
tion, “ however fraternal the feeling may have 
been, it seems to me hardly to justify a step such 
as you have taken.” 

“ Pardon me, Laura,” he said very gently. 
“ Perhaps I did wrong, but since the mischief is 
done, what must I reply to M. de Bailly in your 
name ?” 

“ Nothing !” she answered impatiently. 


i ;8 


Romance of TroiivzUe. 


“ Do you dislike M. de Bailly ?” he asked, and 
his voice trembled. 

“ No, no !” hurriedly answered Laura. “ I did 
not say that, but — I do not see what I can say — 

i * 

to a young man like you. Look here ! I thought 
you were so delicate in all your ways, so consid- 
erate for the feelings of others — and you could 
— Tell your friend — ” She stopped. 

“Well?” asked Rene, whose pallor would 
have terrified Miss Holmes if she had not 
turned her head aside so as not to betray her 
own feelings. 

“ Well, tell him,” she resumed with growing 
irritation, “ that he is a fool ; that such thing are 
not done through others, and especially not 
through a young man. Tell him, in fact, to do 
what he chooses.” 

“May he speak to your aunt?” 

“ Yes— that is to say, no ! At least, not yet !” 
replied Miss Holmes, who had reached a stage 
<of excitement in which she hardly knew what 


A New Complication . 


179 


she was saying. “ We can talk of it some other 
time— I’ll see — but just now I cannot — ” 

Feeling that she had not strength enough left 
her to continue this cruel conversation, Laura 
had gradually drawn near the other prom- 
enaders. She hurriedly spoke to the first person 
she met, and never again looked at Gavary, nor 
even noticed his parting bow. 



CHAPTER X. 

MISUNDERSTANDING. 

By one of those misunderstandings which 
occur so often in love affairs, and especially to 
people used to misfortune, Gavary had inter- 
preted all of Laura’s utterances in favor of his 
friend. “ How greatly she was excited when I 
told her that Bailly thought of getting married !” 
he thought, as he sadly returned to his hotel. 
“ How warmly she spoke of his good qualities ! 
She was so deeply moved, she could hardly 
speak. He was right — she loves him ! Well, let 
them be happy. Still, I loved her so dearly ! 
Ah ! I feel it now, that I have lost her ! Never 

mind ! Am I made to be loved. Let us do 
[180] 



Misundersta tiding. 


1 8 1 


what we can to make others happy ! That is my 
only consolation now. I shall carry out my 
commission and then — God be merciful to me !” 

He went in search of Bailly, whom he found 
walking up and down on the terrace like a wolf 
in his cage ; he told him his interview with Miss 
Holmes, and the conclusions to which he had 
come. Bailly was beside himself with joy. 

“ Do not make me repent what I have done 
for you !” Ren<§ said with a melancholy smile. 
“ Remember, she is like a sister of mine, and 
make her happy !” 

“ I swear I will!” cried Bailly. “But it is not 
all to have her consent! Now for the aunt !” 

“ There I can do nothing for you !” said 
Gavary, not without a certain satisfaction in his 
mind. 

“And yet that will be the most difficult thing 
I shall have to do !” 


“ Why ?' 


182 


Romance of Trouville . 


“ Because — but you are going to laugh in my 
face !” 

“ No,” replied Gavary, who felt disposed to 
do anything rather than to laugh. 

“Because — but you must really promise not 
to laugh at me — ” 

“ Good-night !”said Ren6, who was all anxiety 
to be alone. 

“ Oh, wait a moment! Imagine that with her 
angular figure, her fifty years and her disagree- 
able temper, Mme. de Brinavan loves to talk of 
love and to discuss amorous sentiments. I 
noticed that from the first day. Well, as I 
wanted very badly to gain her goodwill for 
Laura’s sake, I have fallen into the habit of hold- 
ing conversations with the aunt, that would do 
honor to Balzac’s heroes.” 

“ Then you got along very well with her ?” 

“ Yes, if that could have gone On forever. But, 
think of it, this fifty-year-old love-sick woman, 
took to herself what 1 meant generally, and 


Misunder standing. 


183 


fancied this was my way to make her aware, in a 
discreet way, of my secret attachment to her. 
One day I noticed that her two little lizard eyes 
bombarded me in a very peculiar way. At first 
I paid no attention, but soon I had to surrender 
to the evidence. The bombardment continued. 
It was worse than Sebastopol. You understand, 
of course, that I retreated, but I did it too soon, 
too precipitately. I was awkward, I was dis- 
courteous. But what the devil could I do! If 
anybody had caught us, I was lost, I was covered 
with ridicule for life !” 

Under other circumstances Ren£ would have 
amused himself royally at Bailly’s piteous 
account, but just at this moment nothing on 
earth could have made Gavary laugh. He 
made mechanical answers only, having under- 
stood Bailly but half, and under the pretext of 
some important business, he left his friend. 

From the hour of seven the latter was seen 
hastening from the terrace to the beach, and 


1 84 


Romance of Trouville . 


from the beach to the terrace, waiting with very 
natural impatience for the arrival of Miss 
Holmes. The poor man was cruelly disap- 
pointed, when he saw at last the aunt and Mme. 
de Grinan appear on the terrace, but unaccom- 
panied by Laura ! 

“ My sister is rather worn out, she will not 
come to-night,” was the answer Hermance gave 
the unlucky lover when he ventured to inquire. 
He ran at once to Gavary, to tell him. “ What 
do you think of that ?” he asked. 

“ I know nothing about it !” replied Ren£, 
whose nerves were in a state of great tension. 

“ But after all that has happened between us ?” 

“I will tell you. It may be that the commu- 
nication I made her on your behalf has excited 
her too much, and she has taken something to 
soothe her nerves.” 

“ That is what I thought too !” cried Bailly. 
“ But tell me, Gavary — M 

“ Oh, leave me alone, I pray !” exclaimed 


Misunderstanding, 


185 


the latter, hardly able to restrain himself any 
longer. 

“ Do you not think that the first time I meet 
Miss Holmes, I may — ” 

“ You can tell me that some other time ; to-day 
I really have no time !” 

“ Why, what are you going to do?” 

“ I am — 1 am going to play ecart6,” replied 
Ren6, who had just caught the tinkling noise of 
gold-pieces in the card-room, and who eagerly 
seized this pretext to escape from confidences 
which were sure to lacerate his heart. 

He went up to the card-tables and played, but, 
being absorbed in all kinds of sad thoughts, he 
hardly knew what he was doing, and thus came 
to lose in a couple of hours more than two 
thousand francs. He remained playing till 
three o’clock in the morning, too happy to have 
found something that would lead his thoughts 
away from the one all-absorbing subject. 

Alas ! at nine o’clock his friend Bailly re-ap- 


1 86 


Romance of Trouville. 


peared, to talk once more about Miss Holmes! 
But he was told that Gavary had gone leaving, 
however, a letter for him. The envelope they 
handed him contained two letters, one for him- 
self, the other for the old marchioness. Charles 
hurriedly opened his note : 

“ My Friend : You know I am a man of sudden 
decisions. I have long wished to visit America. 
I see in the papers the name of a vessel, the cap- 
tain of which I know, and which sails for the 
States. I avail myself of this opportunity, and 
to-morrow I shall be on the wide ocean, I hope. 
Explain my sudden departure to our common 
friends and beg them to accept my excuses. 
However desirous I may be to say good-by to 
them, I cannot rouse them at five in the morn- 
ing. 

“ Now, my dear friend, God knows when we 
shall meet again — perhaps never. A kind of 
presentiment tells me that I see the coasts of 


i8 7 


Misunder standing. 


France for the last time. You know how little 
l care for life. Do not distress yourself therefore, 
but pray God he may let my presentiments be 
realized ! 

“ If I tell you this, it is because I wish to ask 
you two favors which you may render me, and 
which are in all probability the last I shall ever 
ask of you. 

“ I am writing to-day to my lawyer, asking 
him to finish some business to which I could 
not attend. He will hand you in a few days the 
sum of twenty thousand francs, which I beg you 
will do me the favor to accept as a souvenir 
from a friend. From what you tell me, I fear 
your purse is not too full. As you are on the 
point of getting married, you will have a number 
of bills to pay and, besides, there are always 
many unforeseen expenses. My little help will 
enable you to meet ail such demands, and this 
will compel you and your wife, from time to 
vime, to remember your old friend. 


Romance of Trouville. 


188 


“ The other favor I wish you to do me is this: 
You know the carriage and four horses I bought 
from the Duke of Maran. Of course, I cannot 
take them with me. Pray, accept them. If your 
means should not allow you to keep four horses, 
your might sell two and use the carriage with 
two horses only. 

“ Good-bye, dear friend ! May you be happy ! 
May God bestow on you and your wife all the 
blessings which He has refused me here on 
earth!” 

Although Bailly was accustomed to some 
eccentricity on the part of his friend Rene, he 
was greatly surprised at this letter. Without 
actually divining the secret, he felt that Gavary 
was concealing a mysterious grief from him, 
and that his heart must have been bleeding 
when he wrote that letter. He evidently went 
away resolved never to return ; and if he did not 
state this purpose in so many words, it was only 


Misunders tan ding. 


189 


in order not to startle his friend too much. 
With a heart full of distress he hastened to the 
old marchioness, to show her Gavary’s letter. 
Unfortunately she was not at home. He awaited 
impatiently the moment when he might discuss 
the subject with Miss Holmes, but here also he 
met with disappointment. Laura appeared on 
the terrace, but instead of giving Bailly the 
opportunity he anxiously sought of speaking to 
her, she did all she could not to be left alone 
with him. 

In his despair Bailly openly announced Gav- 
ary’s departure. Laura turned very pale, but 
said nothing. Charles only noticed that she 
clutched the back of the chair on which her hand 
was resting. After a few minutes she resumed 
the conversation; but she spoke more slowly 
than usual, and her lips were quivering. From 
this moment it was she who tried to be alone 
with Bailly, but now her sister, Hermance, would 
not leave her a moment. Both went home after 


i go 


Romance of Trouville . 


awhile and Charles had to leave without having 
been able to say a word in private to Miss 
Holmes. 

He thought for a moment of running down to 
Havre, to catch his friend ; but the tide was low 
and no vessel could go for some time. He went 
down to Pinel, who kept all kinds of boats, and 
asked him where his own boat was. 

“ The Louise left this morning for Havre,” he 
answered ; “ she was hired by the gentleman 
who won the race the ether day.” 

“ And your second boat ?” 

“Went an hour after the first.” 

“ With whom ?’’ 

“ With a man l did not know ; evidently a 
foreigner, for his skin was as yellow as saffron 
and his eyes shone like glowing coals. A bad 
face, I tell you ! Still, he must have known M. 
de Gavary, for he was all anxiety to overtake 
him.” 

“Did he tell you so?” 


M islinder standing. 


i 9 i 


“ No, but it was not hard to guess. He came 
to me ten minutes after the other had started 
from here. I think he must have seen him from 
above. Then he asked me, with a show of indif- 
ference, where that gentleman was going who 
had just left ? I told him he was going to 
Havre. Then he said he wanted also to go to 
Havre, and he hired my other boat. He must 
have been in a hurry, for he promised the two 
boatmen I sent away with him twenty francs if 
the Djalma would go fast/’ 

“ And when can a man go now ?" asked Bailly, 
beginning to feel troubled. 

“ Not before half-past four, or five o’clock." 

“ And where could I get a boat ?’’ 

“ Father Tontan, next door to the Custom 
House, has one." 

It was three o’clock, for Bailly had lost much 
time in looking for Pinel, who lived at the very 
end of the town ; still he hurriedly went to call 
on the marchioness, to tell her what he had just 


Rojnance of Trouville . 


192 


learnt. He was told that she had not come in 
yet, but he had not gone ten steps when a ser- 
vant overtook him, begging him to come back. 

“ The marchioness is busy just now,” said the 
servant, “ but she is very desirous to see you, 
sir. She begs you will be so kind as to wait a 
few minutes for her in the sitting-room.” 

This is what had happened between twelve 
and three o’clock, after Bailly had left Rent’s 
letter at the good old lady’s house. 

When she returned home, she found the fol- 
lowing letter awaiting her : 

“ Dear Marchioness: You have been so very 
kind to me, and have shown me such motherly 
love, that I write to you to-day as I would write 
to my poor mother, if she were still alive. Par- 
don me if I cause you grief, and let the suffer- 
ings of my heart atone for the follies of my 
mind. 

“ 1 leave in a few hours for New Orleans. 


Misunderstanding. 


193 


Once there, I do not know what 1 shall do — I 
only know I must go away from here. 

“ I love Miss Laura Holmes. I love her madly. 
I feel that I shall never love any one but her. 
Do not smile, dear friend. This time I do not 
deceive myself ; the love I feel for Laura, does 
not in the least resemble what I felt for Her- 
mance. I have just learnt that she loves an- 
other man, but the grief this has caused me 
differs entirely from what I felt when Hermance 
became Mme. de Cobrizo. I now see that at 
that time disappointment and injured self-love 
had much to do with my despair and my resent- 
ment. Here all is different. He whom Miss 
Holmes loves is my best friend, Charles de 
Bailly ; and although they have broken my heart, 
I blame neither the one nor the other. I am 
almost calm, but I know that now all is over 
with me. My heart is dead. All is void around 
me. I no longer thirst for revenge. I have no 
hope left. Do you remember the man in Hoff- 


i 9 4 


Romance of IrouviUe. 


man’s wonderful tale who had lost his shadow ? 
Well, I have lost my heart! Hence, I go to 
replace that inner life, the life of my heart, 
which henceforth is denied me. I go in search 
of purely physical life, a life of fatigue, of perils, 
of catastrophes, which force you to forget your 
sorrow, and silence the heart by exhausting the 
body. 

“You see, dear marchioness, I try to des- 
cribe to you what I feel — and I cannot do it. 
The truth is, I am suffering atrociously and feel 
very unhappy. I go away because my energies 
are exhausted ; my courage even is gone. I 
could not be present when Bailly and Miss 
Holmes are made one, and live ! Nor would it 
be right for me to stay. They love each other 
sincerely; any grief would sadden them. You 
alone, dear friend, now know my true story, 
and I count upon your discretion. You see 
from the bitter pleasure I enjoy by unfolding 
my sufferings before your eyes, how sincerely I 


Misunderstanding . 


195 


am attached to you, and how largely I count 
upon your friendship for that poor madman, 
Rene de Gavary. And yet I have another favor 
to ask ! 

“ Laura has no mother. Her aunt takes no 
interest in her, and never will. Charles is very 
young and knows little of life. Well, dear 
marchioness, bestow upon Laura a little of that 
great kindness you have ever shown me ! Love 
her like your daughter! I swear to you she is 
worthy of it, and her heart contains treasures of 
tenderness and of goodness which deserve your 
affection. Watch over her; assist her and her 
husband with your experience and your wisdom. 
Leave me at least this satisfaction that, though 
far from them, I may yet be useful to them 
through you ! I have sent Bailly the means to 
overcome the first difficulties — he may, like all 
young men, have a few debts to pay. I have 
left twenty thousand francs in the hands of my 
lawyer, which I beg you will use to pay all such 


196 


Romance of Trouville . 


debts. Pardon me, if I give you all this trouble, 
if I perhaps abuse your kindness; but you know 
how I loved to do something for Laura! You 
see how I delight in speaking still of her, whom 
I used to love ! 

“ They tell me all is ready and I must close 
my letter. Farewell, dear marchioness, fare- 
well! I wish I could have kissed your hand 
before leaving France, but you would have tried 
to keep me, and we should have suffered, both 
of us: you, at seeing me go; I, at being unable 
to listen to your prayer. Farewell once more ! 
Watch over Laura, for my mother’s sake, for my 
sake !” 

At the moment when she read the closing 
words of the letter, the servant announced : 
“ Miss Holmes !” 





CHAPTER XI. 

LAURA’S DISCOVERY. 

The young girl had been in a state of most 
distressing excitement ever since she heard that 
Gavary had left Trouville. She suffered all the 
more as she had to conceal her grief before her 
aunt, and especially before Hermance, who did 
not leave her a moment out of sight. Unable to 
resist her anxiety any longer, she availed herself 
of a moment when her sister was busy with her 
husband about some preparations for their 
journey and drove to the marchioness, anxious, 
as she said, to learn a new stitch of embroidery, 
which the old lady had really promised to show 
her. 

[ J 97] 


Romance of Trotiville. 


198 


“Great God! What is the matter?” she 
exclaimed as she found the marchioness bathed 
in tears. 

Mme. de Vareil hastily dried her eyes, and, in 
spite of Rent’s prayer, she received Miss Holmes 
rather coldly. It was Laura upon whom the 
kind old lady had mainly counted to heal her 
favorite. For a moment she had even hoped 
that her wishes would be fulfilled, and that the 
two young people would love each other. Rene’s 
letter had effectually destroyed these castles in 
the air, and the excellent old lady could not 
help blaming Miss Holmes for her bitter dis- 
appointment. 

Fearing lest in her excitement she might 
betray Gavary’s secret, she took pains not to let 
the conversation drift in that direction. Laura 
also had her reasons for not mentioning Rene. 
But after some trifling remarks on both sides, 
Laura was no longer able to resist her anxiety. 


Laura's Discovery. 


199 


“ Is it true that M. de Gavary has left us?’' 
she asked, not daring to raise her eyes from the 
work, at which she busied herself with more 
energy than skill. 

“Yes!" was the short reply. 

“ He is gone!" repeated Laura, and her voice 
trembled. “And when did he go?" 

“ This morning !" 

There was a moment's silence. Laura was 
anxious to get hold of some details, and this 
reserve of the marchioness was a new cause of 
distress to her. “ Of course, he will come back 
here ?" she asked. 

“ He goes to America !" 

“To America!" cried Laura, in such a tone of 
anguish that a new thought flashed through the 
old lady’s mind and she looked fixedly at her 
visitor. The young lady made a great effort 
and resumed her work, but her eyes filling with 
tears prevented her doing anything. 

“ 1 had a letter from him this morning !" said 


200 


Romance of Trouville. 


the marchioness who, while she seemed to 
work, did not lose one of Laura’s motions. 

“Ah !” said Laura, and her eyes went, like an 
arrow, to Rent’s letter that was lying on the 
table before the marchioness. 

“ And while announcing to me his departure,” 
continued the latter, “ poor Ren£ also tells me a 
piece of news, for which I certainly was not pre- 
pared. He tells me that you, my dear child, 
are going to marry M. Bailly.” 

“ Did he write you that?” asked Laura, 
eagerly. 

“ You must not blame him for his indiscretion, 
my child. Rene knows that his secrets are safe 
with me. He tells me that you look upon him 
as your brother, and he begs me to watch over 
you.” 

“And he will not come back?” asked Laura, 
almost inaudibly. Her whole being seemed to 
be concentrated in her eyes as she looked at the 
old lady. The marchioness, never ceasing to 


Laura's Discovery . 


201 


watch her, simply shook her head. “ Never !” 
she said at last. 

“ Great God ! what has happened ? Has he 
met with misfortune?” 

“ No !” replied the marchioness, remembering 
the promise she had given Ren£. u He has busi- 
ness over there. But never mind that, dear child. 
Tell me about yourself. You are really going to 
marry M. de Bailly ?” 

“ I, Marchioness ? No !” 

“ But you love each other?” 

She shook her head. “ M. Ren6 told me that 
M. de Bailly loved me and had asked him to get 
my permission to ask my aunt. I do not know 
what 1 told him,” said the poor girl, unable any 
longer so retain her tears and to control her 
excitement. 

“Come, Laura!” said Madame de Vareil, 
“come, speak frankly. I am an old friend of 
yours. Remember that when I came to see that 
poor Madame de Gavary, you were always my 


202 


Romance of Trouville. 


favorite, and used to tell me all your little griefs 
and troubles. You know, also, that if I to-day 
ask you any question, it is because I am anxious 
to see you happy. Come then, and tell me. Do 
you really love M. de Bailly ?” 

“ Why, no! my dear friend, no! I do not love 
him, and never shall love him !” replied the 
young girl, unable to resist any longer ; and with 
her eyes overflowing, she fell into the arms of 
the old lady. The marchioness looked at her 
for a few moments in silence ; then she suddenly 
took Rene’s letter and threw it, open, on her 
visitor’s knees. “ Read that !” she said. 

Laura recognized the handwriting and did 
not wait for a second invitation. But, all of a 
sudden, as she was reading, the poor child turned 
deadly pale and nearly fell backwards ; then she 
turned as red as a cherry, and putting her hand 
on her heart as if to check its too violent beating, 
she read a passage again and again, unable to 
believe what was written at that place. 


Lauras Discovery . 


203 


“ He loves me !” she murmured at last with 
such an accent that the marchioness needed no 
other confession. 

“ Yes, my dear child,” she said, taking both 
of Laura’s hands into her own, “ Rene loves you, 
and you — ?” 

“I? I should have died if he had left !” said 
Laura, resting her lovely head on the shoulder 
of the old lady, who helped her most affection- 
ately. It was at this moment that Bailly 
appeared at the house. As the marchioness had 
told her servants, when Laura came, to excuse 
her, he was sent away, but it has been stated 
how he was promptly recalled, and now he was 
waiting. 

“ Come, dear child !” said the marchioness, 
“do not distress yourself! Ren£ loves you. 
God be thanked for that, for that is the all- 
important point. As to his going away, I hope 
we shall be able to prevent that.” 

“ It is too late now !” murmured Laura sadly. 


204 


Romance of Trouville . 


“ Who knows. A ship does not always sail 
at the hour fixed! There are so many things 
that may detain it, the wind, the mails, the 
passengers, the tide — what do I know. Come, 
dry your beautiful eyes and let us talk calmly — 
if we can ! By the way, here is M. Bailly ; per- 
haps he can tell us something about his friend, 
for he has been here before. Shall I let him 
come in?” 

“ Oh, yes, dear Marchioness !” 

‘‘But then you must leave us alone, my child. 
Ah ! I see. You would like to hear what he 
says. Is that it? Well, go into my boudoir and 
leave the door half open, and then you will hear 
what we are saying. Above all, my child, have 
confidence in me! You may well imagine that 
if I lend myself to all this, it is because I wish 
you to marry my special friend and favorite 
Ren£ de Gavary. Now kiss me, my child, and 
if your heart feels too heavy, raise your eyes to 
heaven and pray. That never fails !” 


Lauras Discovery. 


205 


Laura threw herself into the arms of the 
excellent lady and then retired. M. de Bailly 
entered immediately after her. “ You have 
read Rent’s letter, Marchioness?” he asked at 
once. 

“ Yes, he tells me that he leave us all, and he 
adds that he has written to you at the same 
time.” 

“ That is so. I wished to speak to you about 
that letter and this is my reason for waiting 
upon you at this early hour. But since I called 
first, I have learnt something which gives me 
serious concern.” Then, at the lady’s request, 
he told her his interview with the boatman, and 
what he had told him of the person in pursuit of 
Gavary. The marchioness naturally shared his 
concern and she exclaimed : 

“ Ren6 must be overtaken and warned by all 
means ! Start at once, I beseech you !” 

“ I have ordered a boat to be made ready at 


206 


Romance of Trouville. 


once, but on account of the tide I shall not be 
able to leave here for an hour or more.” 

“ Poor Ren6 ! If you only get there in time ! 
Think of it — if he should be murdered !” 

She suddenly paused and looked attentively at 
Bailly, to read his very soul. The young man was 
surprised. “M. de Bailly,” the old lady said at 
last, perfectly re-assured by the frankness and 
the loyalty that spoke in his features, “you are 
a warm friend of M. de Gavary?” 

“ Certainly,” he replied eagerly. “ He is my 
best friend and I would readily die for him !” 

“ I can assure you that he is worthy of your 
love, and that he returns it. Here is the proof 
of it ! Read this !” and she handed him 
Gavary’s letter. 

As Charles was reading page after page, the 
marchioness saw his eyes fill with tears. “ Poor, 
poor Ren£ !” he said at last. “ How noble he is 
and how generous !” 

“You see what a sacrifice he is making for 


Lauras Discovery . 


20 7 


you,” resumed Mme. de Vareil. “ If the occa- 
sion should offer, would you be capable of doing 
as much for him ?” 

“ I think I would !” the young man said 
simply. 

“ Well, then, my dear sir, the occasion is at 
hand. I have to tell you something which will 
cause you a cruel disappointment. But think of 
the happiness that you will secure to your friend 
when he gave it up for your sake !” 

“What do you mean?” the young man asked 
anxiously. “ Has Miss Holmes — ?” 

“ Gavary and you were both mistaken about 
her. She loves Ren£. She feels for you sincere 
esteem and the warmest friendship ; but Rene 
has her love.” 

« Has she told you so ?” he asked, trembling 
all over, and with a deep sigh. “ Farewell, 
then, to my sweet dreams ! Has she been here ? 
That punishes me justly for my foolish vanity ! 
How she must have been amused at my love ! 


208 


Romance of Trouville . 


Did she really tell you — quite positively — that 
she loved Gavary ?” 

“ As positively as can be !” 

“ And I, 1 was stupid enough — ! Pardon me, 
Marchioness, if I talk nonsense, but just this 
moment my head is turning all around. I had 
so certainly hoped to marry Miss Holmes ! And 
I love her, oh so dearly! You see that upsets 
me so completely !” 

He walked up and down a few times ; then 
pressing his brow against the window-panes, he 
remained standing thus for several minutes, 
silent and mournfully gazing fixedly at the win- . 
tery garden. All of a sudden two little hands 
took hold of his and pressed them gently. He 
turned round and found himself facing Laura, 
who looked at him wistfully, as if asking pardon 
for the pain she was causing him. The poor 
fellow made an effort to smile and to reply in 
some way to this silent evidence of sympathy, 
but his voice refused ; he passed his hand over 


Laura s Discovery . 


209 


his eyes and turned away. Then the old lady 
came to the rescue ; she went up to him and 
took one of his hands, saying affectionately but 
firmly : 

“ My friend, do not blush for your feelings. 
The tears of a brave man are never ridiculous. 
A woman can only be touched by them, and 
honored.” 

Laura took her hankerchief and gently touched 
with it the young man’s eyes, still holding his 
hand. 

“ Do you blame me ?” she asked with her 
sweet and caressing voice. 

“ No ! God is my witness !” he replied. “ Only, 
such a blow, you know, puts one’s mind in a 
little confusion — but that is all over,” he added, 
and in a much stronger voice he said : “ Let us 
talk of Ren6 ! What can we do ? Half an hour 
later Bailly left the ladies much cheered and 
consoled but, of course, with a heavy heart, only 
glad at being called upon to be active and to 


2 IO 


Romance of Trouville . 


rescue his friend from unknown danger. Father 
Tontan had a boat ready for him, and the 
moment the tide served, they started. Half 
way to Havre they met the Louise and the 
Djalma, whom the boatman recognized from 
afar and whom Bailly desired to hail. “ What 
has become of your passengers ?” asked Charles. 

“We have set them on land at Havre,” replied 
the captain of the Louise. 

“ Did you get there in time to overtake M. de 
Gavary ?” 

“ Oh, no ! He had a good quarter of an hour’s 
start.” 

“ Do you know the man in your boat ?” Charles 
next asked the owner of the Djalma, who said 
“No!” and when asked what nation he belonged 
to, replied : 

“ He was a foreigner, sir. A Spaniard, I think, 
or something like it. He had a queer kind of 
speech, and looked as yellow as a lemon ; 


Lauras Discovery . 


21 1 


besides, the white in his eyes was nearly blue, 
just like the negroes.” 

“ How old ? Was he tall ?” 

“ Thirty-five or forty years. As to size, he 
was not tall — perhaps two inches less than I, but 
he looked a very strong man/’ 

“Did he say what he was going to do at 
Havre ?” 

“ No. We never venture to ask a passenger, 
and especially one who pays so liberally as he 
did. He’s an ill-looking man, that is true, but 
his money is very good-looking. Besides, he 
did not look as if he cared to talk. We did not 
even find out his name.” 

“ M. de Bailly,” began the other boatman again. 
“ I think that man was very anxious to overtake 
M. Gavary, for the first thing he asked when he 
landed was, what had become of the passenger 
of the Louise ?” 

“ And what was the answer?” 

“ That he had gone up Paris Street, and had 


212 


Romance of Trouvitte. 


ordered his luggage to be carried to the Hotel 
of the Admiralty.” 

In spite of the importance that attached to the 
information about the man who pursued Gavary, 
Bailly had no time to ask any more questions. 
He thanked the two boatmen, and then his own 
boat continued on its way to Havre. 



CHAPTER XII. 

DARK DEEDS. 

Charles made haste to reach the Hotel of the 
Admiralty. He found that his friend’s trunks 
had at first been put down there, but that Ren£ 
himself had afterwards come and taken them 
away, no one knew where. 

Charles was but too sure that he had gone 
with them directly on board the vessel on which 
he had taken passage. But which ship ? Gav- 
ary had made no allusion to it in his letter, and 
the number of ships going to America is always 
large at Havre. The poor young man ran from 
pillar to post and questioned hundreds of per- 
sons. At last, and by a mere chance, he dis- 

[213] 


214 


Romance of Trouville . 


covered that Gavary had engaged a berth on 
board the Saint Pierre, a vessel about to sail that 
very evening for New Orleans. The owners, 
Messrs. Barby and Co., informed him, however, 
that the departure had been postponed till the 
next morning early, when the tide would serve. 
Bailly immediately went on board; he found his 
friend’s luggage, that had just been brought, but 
the owner, after having chosen his cabin, had 
gone on shore again. The simplest and surest 
way to meet Gavary was, of course, to remain 
on board and to wait for him there, but Bailly 
was always thinking, with great apprehension, 
of the man who had followed Gavary for some 
unknown and most probably criminal purpose. 

He went, therefore, on shore again and looked 
for Ren6, entering every cafe, questioning every 
police-officer and looking around in all public 
buildings. Then he returned once more to the 
ship and at dinner-time to the hotel. All in 
vain ! He had no appetite at dinner and imme- 


Dark Deeds . 


215 


diately after resumed his search. Now he 
began to be seriously concerned about his 
friend. 

Towards nine or ten o’clock at night, broken 
down with fatigue, sad and discouraged, he 
took a seat on a bench near the end of the jetty, 
and here he remained for some time, his eyes 
mechanically fixed upon the scattered lights of 
the thousand ships in port, and of some that were 
at anchor in the dark distance. The weather 
was dark and rainy ; not a soul was on the jetty. 
Soon Bailly’s head sank lower and lower, and 
finally he fell into that indescribable state half- 
way between waking and sleeping. He still 
saw and heard what was going on around him, 
but the impressions were vague and confused. 
A few moments later he fancied he heard foot- 
steps approaching at great speed. Then he saw 
a man standing some seven or eight yards from 
him. As far as he could make out, the new- 
comer was looking towards the city, as if wait- 


2l6 


Romance of Trouville . 


ing somebody’s coming. The next moment this 
man passed close by Bailly, but evidently pre- 
occupied with the person he was looking for, he 
did not notice Bailly, who was, moreover, com- 
pletely hid behind one of the capstans that are 
erected on the jetty. 

The man went some distance farther and con- 
cealed himself in the dark shadow of the next 
capstan, so as to disappear entirely. As he 
stooped down, Bailly thought he noticed in his 
hands something shining that looked like a steel 
blade. Charles was startled by this strange pro- 
ceeding and hid more carefully behind the cap- 
stan. Soon another person appeared on the 
scene ; he walked slowly and rather tottering. 
Bailly trembled ; he thought he recognized 
Gavary. His first impulse was, of course, to 
rise and run after his friend, but at that 
moment his attention was drawn to a third per- 
son, who came from the direction of the town 
and was hardly perceptible in the dim light. 


Dark Deeds. 


217 


“ I wonder if this is an ambush for Rent’s 
benefit?” he asked himself. Then he rose and 
tried to follow Gavary, bending low so as to 
keep his body in the shade. He was only a 
short distance from him when the first comer 
suddenly threw himself upon him, a dagger in 
his hand. Bailly uttered a cry and thus put 
Gavary on his guard ; then he fell upon the 
unknown man, seized him by the throat and 
stopped the hand that was going to strike 
Gavary. His friend, apparently roused from 
deep revery, remained for a moment motionless 
without assisting Bailly. In spite of his efforts, 
therefore, the murderer succeeded in freeing 
his arm ; he grazed his shoulder with the poig- 
nard and fled as fast as he could run towards the 
city. 

“ Are you hurt, Charles ” cried Gavary, recog- 
nizing the voice of his friend. 

“ No !” replied the latter. “ A mere scratch. 
Let us look after the rascal !” 


Romance of Trouville. 


218 


They both ran after him, but he had too good 
a start. Then it looked to them as if, instead of 
pursuing one man, there were two running before 
them. The distance between these two dimin- 
ished perceptibly ; then came a short struggle, 
and finally the dull sound of a heavy body fall- 
ing into the water from the height of the jetty. 
The same noise came a second time immediately 
afterwards. 

The two friends bent over the parapet, but the 
darkness was too profound to unable them to 
distinguish anything. “ The wretches have 
escaped !” cried Bailly angrily. 

“ It may be they are drowning !” replied 
Gavary. 

“We must try at once to get a boat !” 

“ But we will not find any this side of the 
Museum," replied Gavary. 

“ Let us make haste then !” 

But at this hour of the night and at low ebb, 
they could not find a single boatman at the 


Dark Deeds. 


219 


wharf. “ Curses upon them !” cried Bailly. 
“We shall lose them most certainly ! Ah, here 
comes a Coast-guard man, let us ask him where 
we can get a boat !” 

The man was on duty and could not leave his 
post, but he helped the two young men to procure 
a boat. Unfortunately the tide was out, and it 
was an hour later when Gavary, Bailly and 
three other men of the Coast-guard, who offered 
assistance, could get their boat afloat. Then 
they had to procure oars and a beacon. At last 
they could start in the direction in which the 
two men whom they were looking for had 
rowed away. But even with the aid of their 
experienced friends they could not see a trace 
of the fugitives. After two hours’ useless 
search, they returned on board the ship that had 
lent them a small boat, and Bailly said : 

“As soon as it is light, we will go and inform 
the police. I am sure that the scamp whom I 


2 20 


Romance of Trouville. 


seized by the arm, is the same man who wanted 
to murder you at Etretat.” 

“ That is probable,” replied Ren6 indifferently. 
“ But now that we can no longer hope to over- 
take them, and can do nothing but wait for day- 
break, will you be so kind as to tell me how 
you came so opportunely to the rescue ?” 

“ Upon my word, my friend, it has cost me 
trouble enough, for, meaning no harm, I have 
been running after you these twelve hours by 
the clock !” 

“ Poor fellow !” said Ren£, offering him his 
hand. “ I think I can guess what you come 
for.” 

“ And I can tell you that you do not guess 
it.” 

“ Did you get my letter ?” 

“ Yes, and I also read your letter to Mme. de 
Yareil !” 

“What?” said Ren^, almost angrily. “And 


Dark Deeds . 


221 


yet I had begged her specially not to show it to 
anybody !” 

“ And you were sacrificing yourself and 
depriving yourself of the little money that is left 
to you, in order to aid me in marrying the lady 
whom you love ?” 

“You would have done as much for me, in 
my place !” 

“It may be! But as for you, would you 
really have accepted my sacrifice ?” 

“ Certainly !” 

“ 1 can hardly think so. Tell me candidly : If I 
were in your place and Miss Holmes had given 
her heart to you, would you marry her although 
you knew that I loved her ?” 

“ Yes. If my sacrifice could change Miss 
Holmes’ heart and make her love you, I might 
hesitate. But you know very well that such 
things never happen. However dear a friend 
you are to me, I think I would shrink from a 


222 


Romance of Trouville. 


sacrifice which would only make two people 
unhappy without consoling a third one.” 

“ Well, my friend, you have spoken your own 
sentence ! We were both of us mistaken. Miss 
Holmes does not love me — she loves you !” 

“ Me !” cried Ren£, feeling the earth tremble 
beneath him. 

“ Yes, she loves you! Come, Ren6, do not 
tremble so, lean on my arm! Come! I give 
you my word of honor, it is as I tell you !” 

“ How do you know ?” 

“ Miss Holmes herself has told me. Upon my 
word, she is a brave girl! What a heart she 
has! And how frank she is! And how she 
loves you !” he murmured, suppressing a sigh. 
“ Listen, I will tell you the whole story, how it 
all happened since you went away. But let us 
go into the hotel !” 

“ Very well ; but first, tell me once more what 
it was she told you, every word !” 

Although poor Bailly’s heart was bleeding as 


Dark Deeds . 


223 


he told the whole story over again, he bravely 
recited to Ren6 every detail, however insignifi- 
cant it might appear, for he knew but too well, 
from his own experience, that to a lover nothing 
is insignificant that relates to her he loves. 

“ If you are not too tired, we can go back to 
Trouville this evening," at last said Gavary. 

“ 1 am not tired, my friend, but you must be 
so. Besides, you know just now all the boats 
are high and dry. And where could we find 
men to row us ?" 

“ Oh ! the tide rises in half an hour, and boat- 
men can, no doubt, easily be found." 

“And then we would reach Trouville at half- 
past three in the morning. You would hardly 
expect Miss Holmes to receive you at that 
hour." 

“ No, but I should be near her ; that is some- 
thing. ’’ 

“ You are right," murmured Bailly. “ This 
morning I would have said the same thing. 


224 


Romance of Trouville . 


But first, let us see if your servant has come 
back ; we can send him out in search of boatmen 
and a boat. By the way, your trunks, we shall 
have to take them with us." 

“To be sure. I had forgotten." 

At the hotel they were told that Mat had not 
returned, and it was suggested that he might 
have to sleep on board the Saint Pierre. In 
spite of the late hour two servants were immedi- 
ately dispatched, one to bring back Mat, if he 
was on board the American vessel, and the other 
to engage a boat and men. The latter came 
back first ; he had secured a boat to be ready in 
an hour and to lie at the large staircase opposite 
the Museum. The other messenger was less 
successful, he had handed the captain the letter 
which Gavary sent him, but of Mat — not a trace. 

“ What on earth can have become of him ?" 
Gavary asked, seriously troubled. “I should 
be distressed indeed if anything had happened to 
him. He is a noble fellow and so devoted to me." 


Dark Deeds . 


225 


“ Perhaps he avails himself merely of his last 
night on land/' said Bailly. “ Shall we wait for 
him ?” 

“ No. 1 shall leave word for him at the hotel 
and send another note to the ship. He will be 
needed to look to the trunks and little things 
that I have.” 

Half an hour later the two young men were 
on their way back to Trouville, but as wind and 
tide were both against them, they did not reach 
it till seven o’clock. Having nothing better to 
do, Rene began to walk around the house where 
Miss Holmes lived. Unfortunately her room 
looked upon a court-yard and thus he could not 
hope to catch even a glimpse of the young girl. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

RENE’S RETURN. 

As soon as ten o’clock struck, Ren6 presented 
himself at the house of the marchioness, who 
generally rose at that hour. Although hardly 
ready to receive yet, she took pity on the poor 
lover and came down to the drawing-room. 
Ren£ kissed her hand with unusual fervor and 
then her cheeks, as he would have done 
with his own mother. She wanted at first to 
scold him, but she soon saw that just now that 
would have been Love’s Labor Lost, and that 
Gavary could and would speak of nothing else 
but his love. 

“ Listen,” he said. “ You must be to-day even 
[226] 



Rene's Return. 


227 


more indulgent than usual, for, to tell the truth, 
1 feel as if I were intoxicated. Even with that 
poor man, Bailly, I could not speak of anything 
but Laura. That was wrong; it was cruel. I 
blamed myself for it, and vowed I would not 
touch again a subject that must needs be so pain- 
ful for my poor friend — but, you would have 
laughed, five minutes later I began again. I was 
armed to meet misfortune, but I am unarmed to 
meet happiness. You are quite sure Laura loves 
me ? I cannot believe it yet, I should like — ” 

“To hear her tell you so herself? Is that 
what you mean?” Mme. de Vareil asked smil- 
ing. 

“ Yes, indeed !” 

“Well, you will probably meet her this even- 
ing on the terrace.” 

“ There she will be surrounded by ten thou- 
sand people and I shall never be able to speak to 
her— as I would like. Dear Marchioness, you 
are always so very kind — ” 


228 


Romance of Trouville . 


" Yes, I see what you want. You would like 
Laura to come here — do you not? You surely 
make me play a curious farce, — preventing a 
young girl from obeying the will of her parents t 
i do not know what prompts me — ” 

“Your excellent, good heart prompts you!" 
said Ren6, “your great kindness for me and the 
memory of your friendship for my poor 
mother !” 

“ What an intrigant you are !” she replied, 
threatening him with her finger, while he hung 
upon her with supplicating eyes. “ Well, you 
shall be obeyed, sir; I’ll try some pretext, but in 
the meantime, let us talk seriously for a moment. 
As you make me your confidante in this matter, 
and as strangely enough, the other party honors 
me with the same confidence, 1 must needs know 
your financial position.” 

“ Alas !” 

“ Oh, oh ! I thought so. Never mind ! 
When your poor mother died you must have 


Rene s Return. 


229 


found yourself with an income of at least three 
thousand dollars?” 

“ Yes r 

“ What is left of it?” 

“ I dare not tell you !” 

‘‘Well, my poor [child, the mischief is done. 
It is no use to scold you now. Come ! Have 
you not something at least like a thousand a 
year ?” 

“ Alas, no !” 

“ Eight hundred ?” 

“ Perhaps six hundred — and besides — ” 

That will increase the difficulty, I fear,” she 
continued. “ Miss Holmes’ parents will cer- 
tainly object to your want of fortune, and will 
blame you for your dissipation.” 

“ They have the right to do so— and yet, you 
know what drove me into it?” 

« Your unlucky love for Hermance, I know 
but too well ! But that is a consideration 
which, however important in my eyes, will have 


230 


Romance of Trouville. 


no weight with the enemy.” At this moment a 
servant entered and announced Miss Holmes 
“ I will see her 1” said the old lady, retaining 
Ren£, who was about to escape. 

“ Well!” said the old lady, “ there is certainly 
a special god for lovers ! Come, stay here, my 
friend ; in conscience, you know you cannot 
embrace her in sight of the servants ! Try to 
be reasonable !” 

Laura had spent nearly the whole morning in 
trying to find a pretext for going to see the 
marchioness, so as to hear from Reh£. She did 
not know yet that he had been overtaken by his 
friends and was already back in Trouville. 

There was a moment of surprise and joy when 
she was on the point of rushing into the arms of 
the young man. She checked herself, of course, 
but only just in time, and this thought made her 
so confused and embarrassed that she covered 
her face with one hand, while she left the other 
to Gavary who covered it with kisses. 


Rene s Return . 


23! 


“ And you really love me ?” he asked in a low 
whisper, when the young girl had dropped into 
an arm-chair and was shedding tears of joy. 

“Do you not see it?” she answered, gently 
returning the pressure of his hand. “ But you ? 
Is that letter which they have shown me really 
the expression of your thoughts? Do you 
really love me as dearly as you wrote to Mme. 
de Vareil ?” 

“ Oh, no !” replied Rene most eagerly. “ I 
love you a thousand times more !” 

While he was thus talking to Miss Holmes, 
Gavary all the time looked at Mme. de Vareil, 
and the old lady knew very well that he would 
have given much to be left alone with Laura 
for a few minutes, but she replied to his prayer 
by a sign of denial, and kept near the two lovers, 
who spoke in whispers, with that sublime selfish- 
ness that characterizes all lovers. When she 
thought that they had at last become a little 


232 


Romance of 7'rouvitle, 


more composed, she sat down by them, and 
said : 

“ And I ?” with a sweet, though somewhat 
ironical smile. 

Laura turned round suddenly and hid her 
face in the old lady’s bosom, thanking her at the 
same time most cordially. Renb was kneeling 
before the old lady and kissed her hands. 

“ Come, my children, come !” said the mar- 
chioness, deeply moved by these signs of their 
gratitude ; “ do not excite me too much — one of 
us three must preserve his calmness and watch 
over the other two. You, Miss Laura, dry your 
beautiful eyes, and you, Master Ren£, sit down 
here by me ! Now, let us talk sense, if we can, 
and arrange our conspiracy.” 

Miss Holmes was very anxious to know what 
had happened at Havre, but she dared not ask 
any questions, and sat down on the other side. 

“ Let us see,” began the old lady ; “ your uncle, 
M. de Brinavan, is your guardian ?” 


Rene s Return . 


233 


“ Yes, Marchioness.” 

“ Then, you cannot marry without his con- 
sent ?” 

“ No ; but my uncle will not give me an answer 
without consulting his wife, and she is the one 
to decide !” 

“ She is the master, then, in the house ?” 

“ Absolutely !” 

“ And you think she will oppose M. de Gav 
ary ?” 

“ I am sure of it !” 

“ But your uncle ?” 

“ He, on the contrary, is still full of reverence 
and gratitude for Mme. de Gavary. He prefers 
me to my sister, and if we could get hold of him 
by himself, we would easily get him to con- 
sent.” 

“ I must have an interview with M. de Brina- 
van,” said the old lady, after a few moments’ 
meditation. “ We must enlist him on our side. 
In the first place, that will give me more cour- 


234 


Romance of Trouville. 


age, as I shall have no conscientious scruples 
any longer, if we once prevail on your natural 
protector to consent. Where would I most 
likely find your guardian, my dear child ?” 

“ I hardly know. He spends his days at home 
or on the beach.” 

“ Alone?” 

“Oh, no ! with his friends.” 

After mature deliberation, it was agreed that 
Miss Holmes should try to catch her uncle 
alone and to send him to the marchioness. 

“ He will tell aunty at once !” said Laura. 

“Tell him I mean to ask him a favor and beg 
he will keep my secret. He will fancy some- 
thing complimentary to his vanity — is he not a* 
kind of a Lovelace ? He will surely not compro" 
mise me in any way ?” 

“ Oh, no,” replied Laura, who could not help 
being highly amused at her poor uncle being 
looked upon as a conquering hero. “ He is not 
brilliant, but he is a thoroughly good man.” 


Rene s Return. 


235 


“ Well, then, lose no time and send him here 
as soon as you can ! By the way, is there no 
one who has some influence over his wife ?” 

“ My sister, but it is not much.” 

“ Oh, that is not to be thought of. But how is 
it about M. de Cobrizo ?” 

“ He is perhaps the man who might have more 
influence than any one else.” 

“ What does he think of Rene ?” 

“ He hates him. I do not know why, but he 
hates him bitterly.” 

“ Perhaps from jealousy ?” 

“ 1 do not think so, or, at least, if that is the 
real motive, he conceals it most skillfully.” 

“ Well, we’ll see !” said the marchioness. 
“ Now, my children, we must separate. Do not 
trouble yourselves too much, and count upon 
Providence. Good-bye, Miss Laura ; you, Ren6, 
stay here. You can go later. By the way, Miss 
Laura, how did you manage to get away this 
morning ?” 


236 


Romance of Trouville . 


“ I said you wanted to see me about some 
charitable enterprise,’* Laura answered, hanging 
her head and casting down her eyes. 

“ Hm ! hm !” said the old lady, but finally she 
shrugged her shoulders and with a hearty laugh 
she said : 

“ Come, you little sinner, kiss me and get 
away.” 

Half an hour later the servant announced M. 
de Brinavan, who wished to see the marchioness. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A GUARDIAN’S troubles. 

Hildegard’s happy husband was a great, big 
man, whose insignificant face expressed repose 
and goodness. To characterize his whole 
appearance one word sufficed: Ordinary! The 
one thing that struck you about him, was his 
roundness; his forehead, his eyes, his nose, 
everything was round and shapeless in M. de 
Brinavan. 

From the first of January to the last of 
December he wore soft shoes and white stock- 
ings, a black satin waistcoat and a black frock 

coat. His trousers only, and his hat underwent 

[237] 


238 


Romance of Trouville . 


certain changes, according to the temperature. 
In his whole life he had never put on an over- 
coat, and people counted upon finding the 
mercury several degrees below zero when he 
was seen to wear a cloak, which was some ten 
or twelve years old. 

With all that, he was the easiest man to live 
with. Although he spent so little upon himself, 
he was not a miser, and if it but rarely occurred 
to him to make his nieces a present, he never 
refused them a thing they asked for. He liked 
the younger better, and more than once he had 
taken Laura’s part, even against his wife. 

The good man was painfully embarrassed as 
he appeared before Mme. de Vareil. Not that 
he was generally bashful ; he had learnt too well 
the influence that money commands, and was 
very ready to fall back upon his millions when 
great nobleman treated him haughtily. When 
he met proud, and especially impertiment 
people, he knew very well how to hold his own ; 


A Guardian's Troubles. 


239 


but facing a lady, who Held such a high position as 
the marchioness, — thanks to her great name, her 
vast fortune, and her cleverness, — he felt instinc- 
tively a superiority that was beyond his reach. 
Her very politeness troubled him, for he wished 
to appear well in the eyes of one whom he 
knew to be so generally beloved and respected. 
This momentary embarrassment quickly passed 
away, for the great lady possessed in a high 
degree that tact and that hearty kindness which 
put everybody at ease. Five minutes later he 
was cozily chatting away with his hostess, and 
only the frequent changes of the place of his hat 
betrayed still some surviving embarrassment. 

The old lady had judged her visitor at the 
first glance. She knew at once that frankness 
was, with him, the best policy, and thus she 
simply told him all that had occurred between 
M. de Gavary and Charles de Bailly. The old 
man listened attentively, his eyes fixed on the 
tips of his shoes. “Now that you know 


240 


Romance of Trouville. 


all,” concluded the Marchioness, “answer me 
candidly: You remember, I am sure, all that 
poor Mme. de Gavary did in her day for your 
two nieces. Are you not willing now to give 
Miss Laura to her son ?” 

M. Grodot remained silent for a while ; then 
he said : “ Great God, if that depended on 

myself alone, I swear the two young people 
might be married to-morrow. I am still pro- 
foundly grateful to Mme. de Gavary, and I am 
very fond of her son. When my niece, Her- 
mance, wanted to marry M. de Cobrizo, I was 
strongly opposed to it, because I knew she was 
in some way engaged to M. Ren£. Unfor- 
tunately — ” 

“Well?” 

“ I am rather reluctant to tell you. I am 
afraid you may laugh at me. But never mind ! 
I would rather appear ridiculous in your sight 
than to be charged by you with ingratitude. 
Only, keep my secret, I beseech you.” 


A Guardian s Troubles . 


241 


“ I promise you I will." 

“Well, then. Although I am Laura’s guard- 
ian, I am not absolutely master of her fate. In 
order to interest my wife in these two orphans, 
and to make her look upon them as her own 
children, I left Hildegard entirely free in all 
that concerns them. Then, I must confess, my 
wife is rather masterful. Nor is this altogether 
my fault. When I married her, I owned a con- 
siderable fortune, far superior to what my wife 
possessed. Unfortunately, I lost almost all in 
1878. From that moment, and in order to calm 
the outrageous complaints of my wife, 1 gradu- 
ally yielded the reins to her, and when she later 
on inherited from her uncle Morel, a large for- 
tune, she could almost truly say that everything 
that we had belonged to her. This humiliated 
me and made me timid. I beg your pardon for 
telling you all this, but it was the only way in 
which I could explain to you how I came gradu- 
ally to let Hildegard rule the house and the 


2\2 


Romance of Trouville . 


family. Now, it is too late to try and break the 
habit. 

“ To return to the young man. My wife can- 
not bear him, I hardly know why. She says — 
and not altogether unjustly — that he is dissipa- 
ted, a madcap and not a man to whom a. girl's 
happiness can safely be entrusted. I am seri- 
ously troubled about it, for 1 love dear, little 
Laura, and I should be distressed to see her 
unhappy." 

All this was said with so much kindness and 
frankness that no one could doubt the old man’s 
predilection for Rene. It was not difficult, 
therefore, for the marchioness to plead her 
favorite’s cause. She told him how studious he 
had been up to twenty-five years, and added : 

“You know it was the faithlessness of Her- 
mance which led him to commit all those fool- 
ish things ; your family owes him some compen- 
sation !’’ 

“ Poor fellow !’’ murmured the old man, quite 


A Guardian' s Troubles . 


243 


moved by her eloquent pleading. “ And you 
say my niece loves him ?” 

44 I assure )^ou she does. And I know her 
well enough to be quite certain that she will 
never change.” 

44 Why did she never tell me anything about 
that, the little hypocrite ?” he asked, displeased. 

44 How could she tell you that ? You know 
that young girls are not apt to choose a man of 
your age for their confidante. And as to Mme. 
de Brinavan, need I ask you how she would have 
received such confidence ?” 

44 That is true !” said the poor, old man. 
After an hour’s conversation he returned home, 
pretty well convinced that Laura could never 
hope to be happy, unless with M. Ren<§ de Gav- 
ary. The young girl, who had been lying in 
wait for him, at once came running up to him, 
and took him into a corner under the pretext of 
showing him a purse, which she had knit for his 
benefit. 


244 


Romance of Trouville. 


“ I have just seen the Marchioness de Vareil. 
She has told me the whole story. So, you really 
love this M. de Gavary?” 

The answer is easily guessed, and even if M. 
de Brinavan had not already been convinced by 
the eloquence of the old lady, he would never 
have been able to resist the winning ways of 
Laura, who told him her fears and her hopes 
with all the sweetness and winsome grace that 
were her own. 

“ You do with me what you choose,” he said 
at last. “ Is my wife in her room ?” 

“ Yes, dear uncle !” 

“ Come and kiss me, to give me courage ! 
Well! now for the attack! You are laughing, 
you little scamp! Well, I solemnly assure you 
that peacefully disposed as I am, I would rather 
attack a redoubt than enter upon a discussion 
with your aunt !” With these words he went 
upstairs and resolutely entered Mme. de Brina- 
van’s room. 



CHAPTER XV. 

A woman’s tactics. 

At the first glance the good lady saw that 
there was a battle in the air. She let her hus- 
band open the fight without interrupting him 
once ; but as he advanced in his recital, her face 
assumed such an air of threatening wrath that 
the good man felt more and more uncomforta- 
ble. He was not self-possessed enough to con- 
tinue to the end. Making a desperate effort, like 
a coward forced to come to an end, he wound 
up with these words, which he unfortunately 
uttered in a voice that was little in accord with 
what he had said before : “ Thus, you see, 

dear friend, I mean Laura to marry M. de Gav- 
ary.” 


[ 245 ] 


246 


Romance of Trouville. 


“ Ah ! you mean to do that, do you ?” sneered 
the amiable lady, beginning softly, but raising 
soon her voice as her irritation increased. 
“Very well,, sir ! Of course, from the moment 
when you decide, nobody needs say any more. 
You are the master, you can dispose of your 
niece as you choose; she is nothing to me, noth- 
ing at all ! It was not I who took her into our 
house, perhaps ?” 

“ But, Hildegard, of course, I meant to con- 
sult you/’ 

“ It was not I who paid for their dresses and 
engaged all their teachers, was it?” 

“ But, Hildegard !” 

“ It is not 1 who make continually the greatest 
sacrifices lor them ; who spend my nights at 
balls or in society to introduce them Ah! 
You mean to do that? Well, I also mean to do 
something, and I shall let you know what it is. 
Since I am no longer of use in this house, since 
my kindness and my devotion are no longer 


A Woman s Tactics. 


247 


appreciated here, since ingratitude and discour- 
teous ways — ” 

44 Oh, Hildegard, let me explain to you — ” 

But he might as well have attempted stem- 
ming the rising tide as to stop her eloquence, 
and for a whole hour she annihilated her poor 
husband, whose more and more timid objections 
were pulverized by the fierce arguments of his 
terrible other half. Several times he tried to 
escape, but Hildegard at once put herself 
between him and the door, barring the passage. 
“No,” she said, “ you shall listen till I have 
ended. All my life I have been too kind, too 
indulgent. I am tired of that at last !” 

Beaten, overwhelmed, nearly crushed by this 
Philippic, the poor husband took a chair in a 
corner, folded his hands over his big stomach, 
and waited with the patience of a martyr for 
the end of the tempest. Nor was this an unus- 
ual occurrence — far from it ; he always suc- 
cumbed, while Hildegard triumphed, but with 


248 


Romance of Trouville . 


tearful eyes. She always wept, even while she 
accused her husband that he was killing her 
and driving her into her grave before her time. 
Brinavan did his best to calm and soothe her 
and, of course, wound up by solemnly abandon- 
ing his foolish project. A new shower of tears 
rewarded his surrender, under cover of which he 
fled from the room. 

No sooner did he find himself once more alone, 
than he regretted his weakness in yielding to his 
wife’s anger ; but it was too late now. He felt 
that he was too weak to cope with his wife. 
He stole out of the house so as not to meet 
Laura, whose tears he dreaded, and went at 
once to the marchioness, to whom he frankly 
confessed the truth. “You may blame me, as 
you choose,” he said to her. “ I deserve it all, 
but I cannot help it; it is stronger than I am. I 
shall never be able to make my wife do my will. 
The habit is too strong ! And yet God knows 


A Womans Tactics . 


H9 


what I would give to see my little Laura 
happy !” 

The old lady, who was all kindness and too 
clever not to understand the weakness of men, 
never thought of reproaching her weak but 
kind-hearted old friend ; she knew it was better 
to make a warm friend of him than to hurt his 
feelings. She meant, on the contrary, to wait 
till a better chance might enable him to prove 
that, in spite of his lamentable weakness when 
dealing with his strong-willed wife, he was cap- 
able of being useful to his friends. 

“ Listen !” she said to him. “ I fully under- 
stand your position and I would not advise you 
to make another appeal to your energetic wife. 
All I care for, just now, is your consent to this 
marriage, and the assurance that you wish it 
to take place.” 

“ Oh ! as to that, I swear I do !” 

“ And you allow me to do what I choose to 
bring it about ?” 


250 


Romance of Trouville . 


“With all my heart; and I thank you in 
advance for all that you will do !” 

“ Then I say Good-bye ! But no ! not yet I 
First give me some information about your 
nephew, Cobrizo.” 

“ To tell the truth, I know very little,” he 
replied. “ Cobrizo is the most reserved man I 
have ever known. He is very rich, this I know, 
and very proud of his great wealth, jealous like 
a tiger and downright bad at heart. His one 
desire is to play the grand seigneur ; at certain 
moments he throws the money out of the win- 
dow, and then again he would shave an egg.” 

“ What was he before his marriage?” 

“ Nothing. He lived in Brazil.” 

“ And why did he emigrate ?” 

“ He was tired, and like most foreigners, he 
wanted to see Paris, and to be admitted into the 
best society here. For an invitation to a Count 
he would sell his rights as an elder brother. I 
tell you, between us, Cobrizo has a bad heart 


A IV Oman s Tactics. 


2 5 * 


and goes on in a way which I do not like at all. 
We hardly ever meet.” 

Of course, this statement did not greatly 
enlighten the marchioness as to M. de Cobrizo’s 
character; still she determined to have an inter- 
view with him. Having heard that he was just 
then on the Terrace, she went out there and 
sent a friend after him. “ Either,” she said to 
herself, “he will come to my assistance in behalf 
of my young friend, or he refuse. In the first 
case, it will be well to have him as an ally ; in 
the other case, we’ll know at least who are our 
enemies. Besides, I shall find out something 
about the character of this mysterious Portu- 
guese.” 

He arrived very soon, all smiles and readiness 
to help. What could he do for the dear mar- 
chioness? She had but to speak and he was 
ready to do anything and everything for his 
esteemed friend. After a few mutual compli- 
ments, the old lady approached the subject. 


252 


Romance of Trowville. 


She dwelt upon Gavary’s name and his distin- 
guished relations, giving Cobrizo to understand 
that Rent's brother-in-law would secure admit- 
tance to the best society in Paris. But in spite 
of her diplomacy, she became very soon aware 
that Cobrizo paid but little attention to this, and 
evidently did not care much for M. de Gavary. 
Finally, she resolved to mention the marriage. 
The mere allusion was ill received. Cobrizo 
contained himself for a time, but soon his nat- 
urally violent temper broke out, and with it his 
hatred of Gavary. He sneered at him for his 
want of fortune, his youthful follies and his dis- 
sipated life. He finally showed such very bitter 
and violent animosity, that the marchioness had 
to beg him to spare a dear friend of hers. As 
he still continued, using harsher and harsher 
terms, she said at last some of those things 
which would have made a Frenchman blush 
with shame and remorse. In his wrath, how- 
ever, the Portuguese seemed hardly to under- 


A W oman s Tactics . 


253 


stand what she meant. He had probably no 
intention to wound the old lady’s feeling’s, but 
he finally forgot himself so far that she felt com- 
pelled to say to him : 

“ I perceive now, too late, unfortunately, that 
I forgot to mention among the good qualities 
which M. de Gavary possesses, one that is very 
important. He is a true gentleman, courteous 
and well-mannered ; he knows how to speak to 
ladies with all the courtesy and consideration 
which is due them from every well-bred gentle- 
man. You seem not to be aware, sir, that this is 
a quality which we appreciate very highly in 
France.” 

As she uttered this little admonition with all 
the polite impertinence which high-bred ladies of 
the French nobility know so well to employ, the 
marchioness dropped him a deep courtesy, and 
spoke to two persons who happened to pass at 
that moment. 

“ I am afraid you have not been successful 


254 


Romance of Trouville. 


with the Portuguese,” said M. de Bailly, who 
had noticed her angry look. 

“ What would you have me do with such a 
lout ?” she replied, being all the more wounded 
by the want of courtesy of the Portuguese, as 
she was accustomed to be treated everywhere 
with the highest consideration. “ And yet he 
and the like of him are readily received in 
society ! I believe if the greatest clown came to 
us from abroad, with eight or ten millions in his 
pocket, all our best houses would vie with each 
other to have him under their roof.” 

“ What ? W as M. de Cobrizo disrespectful to 
you ?” asked Bailly eagerly. 

“Oh, no! He did not go so far!” at once 
replied Mme. de Vareil, who understood what 
the young man meant. “ He was only coarse 
and rough ; but that is enough. I am determined 
to bring my friend Gavary’s marriage with Miss 
Holmes about. Now that my conscience is at 
rest, thanks to M. Grodot’s consent, I feel like 


A Womans Tactics . 


255 


Guzman : I know no obstacle ! Let us conspire ! 
Who of you gentlemen can suggest to us a 
plausible plan?” 

“ I know a way,” said one of the old gentle- 
men, a well-tried, old friend, “ but you will say 
it belongs to the stage and not into actual life.” 

“Well?” said the marchioness doubtfully. 

“There, you see! Well, my old friend, 
although such means are old and worn-out, they 
still succeed almost always. How many ages 
have used baited hooks, and yet fish are daily 
caught? My plan concerns M. de Bailly and all 
depends upon him. So far he has appealed to 
good feelings only — and has failed. He must 
now change the proceeding. The end will 
justify the means.” 

“ But what is it I am to do ?” 

“ You must pay court to Mme. de Brinavan !” 

“ I?” cried Charles horrified. 

“ Yes, you ! I know that at one time she 
misinterpreted your constant visits to her house.” 


256 


Romance of 7'rouville. 


“ Who told you that?” 

“ The Marchioness!” 

“ And I had it from your friend Rene,” said 
the old lady, highly amused. 

“ 1 shall never dare ! Everybody would laugh 
at me !” 

“ It need not be long. All you have to do is 
to be tender and passionate — ” 

“ Passionate ?” 

“ Certainly — a fervent confession, a declaration 
full of fire and passion !” 

“A declaration of love! Why, the good 
lady herself would laugh in my face.” 

“ Oh, come ! You know very well how she 
treated you before she found out that you pre- 
ferred her niece.” 

“ But how would you have me convince her 
now of the contrary ? How could I explain to 
her — ?” 

“ Never mind that ! With her and with most 
women, the heart — or more frequently their 




and you keally love me V’—See rage 231. 





































A Womans Tactics . 


257 


vanity — resembles a musical box. You have 
only to wind them up by a declaration of love 
and they sing by themselves.” 

“ And you think it will be enough for me to 
pay marked attentions to that — ” 

“Hush!” said Bailly. “We may amuse our- 
selves at the expense of an old coquette, when 
she is hateful and bad ; but we ought never to 
use bad words when we speak of a woman.” 

“ But how will my courting this very amiable 
person — since you will have it so — make her 
grant my friend the hand of her niece ?” 

“ You would see that in two or three years ; 
but I fear you do not have the patience required 
for such a siege.” 

“ Two or three years ! Mercy !” 

“Well, the siege of Troy lasted longer ; but 
since you do not choose this way, I think I have 
another way which we may try.” 

“What is it?” 

“ I am not quite certain of all the details yet. 


258 


Romance of Trouville . 


If you will do me the honor to dine with me, M. 
de Bailly, we can settle it between us and dress 
our batteries.” 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A RIDICULOUS SITUATION. 

The evenings at Trouville are, as a rule, per- 
fectly magnificent, and allow the guests to 
promenade or to remain on the Terrace till late 
into night. The North winds, which make the 
whole Northern coast of France a rather inhos- 
pitable land, are here kept out by the immense 
horse-shoe which protects the harbor on three 
sides, and gives it an almost Southern climate. 
When M. Bailly and his new friend came out on 
the Terrace, they saw quite a crowd still there, 
and the old gentleman said : “ Here is your 

Dalcinea !” pointing out Mme. Brinavan, who 
was entertaining a circle of friends. “ What 

U59] 



26 o 


Romance of Trouville . 


on earth can she be telling them ?” The fact is 
that the good lady, merely to keep her admirers 
around her, related to them a scandalous adven- 
ture, bad enough in itself, but highly adorned 
and “ embroidered ” by her skill. 

“ What a viper’s tongue ! Although our 
motive is sound, I had some scruples to make a 
woman like her play a ridiculous part ; my con- 
science now is quite calm. Our plot will be the 
well-earned punishment of her wickedness. 
Come, M. de Bailly, this is the great moment ! 
I am going to see that you are not interrupted. 
No weakness !” 

“ Oh ! you need not fear !” laughed Charles. 
“ If I were to do all, Joseph would be a Don 
Juan compared with me!” Thereupon the old 
gentleman took Bailly by the arm and led him 
to the little group that surrounded Mme. de 
Brinavan. After some minutes’ conversation, 
someone mentioned the magnificent view to be 
enjoyed from the upper cliffs. “ Especially at 


A Ridiculous Situation. 


261 


night it is fine/' he said, “when the moon 
shines.” 

“ Shall we go up ?” said one of the ladies. 

“Oh, yes! By all means! Let us go,” 
exclaimed Mme. de Brinavan in a sentimental 
manner. “ The azure of the ocean and the emerald 
green of the slopes — how glorious that must be 
in the silvery rays of the star of the night ! At 
this hour all is mystery and poetry !” 

“ That is a happy thought ! It is eight o’clock, 
and we can be back by ten, or, at the latest, by 
half-past ten. Shall we go ?” 

“ Let us go !” cried quite a number. 

“ Will one of you gentlemen be kind enough 
to tell my husband ?” said Hildegard, getting 
up. Five or six other people joined the little 
group, and they started merrily on their night’s 
excursion. 

“ Madame,” reported one of the young men, 
“ M. de Brinavan is just finishing a game of 
domino ; he will overtake you !” 


262 


Romance of Trouville . 


“ Come, Charles !” whispered the old gentle- 
man and pointed at Mme. de Brinavan’s heavily 
plumed hat. “ Follow that green plume and 
remember, that from the height of that monu- 
ment fifty springs are looking at you ! Remem- 
ber your poor friend !” he added more seriously. 
Bailly made an effort and offered the lady his 
arm which she eagerly accepted. She used to 
say that Bailly was fit for the gallows, not being 
able to pardon him for her own mistake ; never- 
theless she was proud enough to be escorted by 
a young man, handsome, well-born, amusing and 
especially a leader of fashion. This was per- 
haps his principal attraction in her eyes, since 
with her the heart was empty and vanity reigned 
supreme. “ What is the matter with you 
to-day ?” she asked after several efforts to make 
him talk had disastrously failed ; “ you look sad 
and preoccupied. Has anything unpleasant hap- 
pened to you ?” 

“ I am often so!” he replied mournfully. 


A Ridiculous Situation. 


263 


“And why? You, the spoilt favorite of the 
ladies ?” 

“ I would rather be so of one lady !” 

“ Fie !” said the virtuous lady, as if to scold 
him. “ I suppose, however, it must be so. Or 
do you pretend that you are not lucky in your 
love ?” 

“ Alas, no !” sighed Bailly in his most lugubri- 
ous tone. 

“ You have been told that she does not love 

? y> 

“ No, madame, but I have seen it but too 
clearly.” 

“ Do you mean she has not listened to your 
declaration ?” 

“ Alas ! I have never ventured to go so far !” 
“You are jesting! You are certainly not 
timid !” 

“ Not ordinarily ; but when the heart is in an 
uproar — ” 

“ What, M. de Bailly, could you really be able 


264 


Romance of Trouville . 


to love in that way? Ah! that is delightful ! Ah! 
You do not know how high that raises you in 
my esteem ! You will say I am very curious — 
but you know, we women. Come, do I know 
the object of your worship ?” 

“ Oh, yes, madame !” 

“ Is it by chance still my niece?” she asked, 
very severely. 

“Your niece?” Charles asked greatly sur- 
prised. 

“ Laura !” 

“By no means! You thought at onetime I 
loved her. Mistake ! Never. You are entirely 
mistaken !” 

“ And those long walks, those sentimental 
meetings under my window ?” 

“ Nothing, madame !” 

“ Perhaps it was the purest accident that made 
you meet each other wherever we went ?” 

“No, madame. I see you still think I love 


A Ridiculous Situation . 


265 


your niece! You are in error. I love — I love 
still — but it is not your niece I love, it is — ” 

il But then I search in vain — neither Laura nor 
Mme. de Cobrizo — who can it be?” she added, 
casting down her eyes. 

“ Do not try to guess, madame, for if you 
were to divine my secret, I should no longer be 
able to appear at your house.” 

“ I do not understand you,” said poor Hilde- 
gard, who began to think that she might as well 
have been mistaken the second time and not the 
first. “ Come,” she said, “ is the person whom 
you love one of my intimate friends ?” 

“ Yes, madame. And of your family !” 

“And yet it is neither Hermance nor Laura? 
But who on earth can it be then? You must tell 
me !” 

“ Oh, madame, you will be angry !” 

“ Well?” 

“ Madame, it is you, it is you !” cried Bailly at 


266 


Romance^ of Trouville. 


last with all the impetuosity of a timid horse 
which at last determines to leap a fence. 

“ I ? Great Heavens !” Hildegard exclaimed, 
covering her face with both hands to conceal 
blushes that did not come to time. “ An old 
woman — ” 

“ A woman’s age is what she looks !” 

“ Who has nothing tempting !” 

“ What do you say ! Wit, elegance, grace — ” 

“ Oh, you flatterer ! But I repeat I do not 
believe a word of what j^ou say !” 

Bailly looked rapidly all around. There was 
no one in sight; all the other people must be far 
ahead, probably on the top of the mountain. The 
moment had come. With a pathetic gesture 
Bailly held trembling Hildegard and threw 
himself at her feet. 

“ You will not believe me,” he said. “ Listen 
to me, madame. I have too long concealed the 
secret of my heart, and my tongue at last can 
bear it no longer !” This classic declaration was 


A Ridiculous Situation . 


267 


followed by an eclectic address, inasmuch as 
Bailly borrowed all kinds of sentences that he 
could recollect from drama, tragedy, novel or 
romance. From time to time he looked around 
helplessly. His friend had promised to come to 
the rescue and shorten the interview. On the 
other hand, the good lady who was not used to 
hear such grand music, was loath to interrupt 
the stream of his eloquence, though poor Bailly 
was at the end of all his quotations. He began 
to fear that his friend had forsaken him, but at 
the moment when he was going to prepare a 
third edition of his declaration, he heard the 
steps of a man who was cautiously approaching. 
Encouraged by the nearness of assistance, Bailly 
plunged into the most incendiary phrases, and 
Hildegard, overcome by this impetuosity, was 
stammering some words, when of a sudden a 
man rushed between the two. 

“ My husband 1” cried Hildegard. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE BATTLE WON. 

“ I am sure I cannot believe my own ears!” 
murmured M. de Brinavan, looking in turn at 
M. de Bailly and again at his wife. The former 
could hardly keep from laughing and Hilde- 
gard was busy choosing the softest spot to faint. 
“ What? You, M. de Bailly, a young man of 
twenty-five, I find you on your knees before my 
wife, who is past fifty !” 

“ That is not true !” cried Hildegard, upon 
whom this phrase produced the effect of the 
usual glass of water which cures fainting-fits. 

“ Be silent, Madame !” said the husband 
sternly. 

[268] 


The Battle Won . 


269 


“ But, sir — " resumed Hildegard, in whom the 
domineering spirit revived. 

“ I begged you to be silent, Madame," broke in 
Grodot with an accent of authority which 
closed the lips of his haughty “ better half." 
“ Do not drive me too far, believe me ! I find 
it hard enough not to. If I were not afraid of 
the ridicule which such an affair must bring 
down upon two people of our age, I would — " 
“ Of our age !" sighed Hildegard. 

“ But I know everybody would laugh at us 
to our faces," said the poor man, whose wrath 
had its comic feature, “ they would say we were 
in our second childhood — " 

“ Sir !" screamed Hildegard, “ such expres- 
sions — " 

“ Are well deserved by you, Madame, and I 
think you are very impertinent to dare raise 
your voice here after the scene which I have 
witnessed. No doubt you count upon my weak- 
ness, as usual ; but you will find out your error, 


270 


Romance of Trouville . 


Madame. When my honor is attacked, when 
my affections are despised, then I am the 
master ! Everything shall change henceforth. I 
mean that from this day everything will be done 
as I will it, and you, Madame, will be the first to 
obey. We will now rejoin the others with 
whom we started. Not a word of what has 
happened here. Do you hear, Madame ? As for 
you, M. de Bailly — ” 

He looked for him, but in vain. He had slipped 
away and was just now conversing with his new 
friend, who had just come to the rescue. 

“Well," said Bailly to his friend, “ you see 
now how far your counsels have helped me. I 
am sure it was you who sent the husband on 
the stage !” 

“ No, not at all !” was the reply. “ I intended 
to appear myself so as to get some hold on Mme. 
de Brinavan. I thought she would no longer 
resist me when I should ask for her niece’s hand 
for your friend.” 


The Battle Won . 


271 


“ But why did you not come as you had prom- 
ised r 

“ Because I could not get rid of that accursed 
man Garton, who hung on to me like a burr, in 
order to get a permit from me to hunt in my 
forests, and who followed me like my 
shadow/' 

“ Here I am now in a pleasant position ! If 
the report of my good fortune comes out, there 
will be nothing left to me but to pack my trunks 
and to leave Trouvilie !” 

“ Not quite so fast, my friend ! Let us con- 
sider !” said the old gentleman, who, though per- 
fectly able to understand the young man’s 
annoyance, still could hardly keep from laugh- 
ing heartily. “ The two people most concerned 
will certainly not speak of it, nor will you ! 
There remains no one but I, and I presume my 
word of honor will suffice ?” 

As there was no other way out of the imbrog- 
lio, Bailly must needs consent, and he returned 


272 


Zomance of Trouvzlle . 


a very sad man to the Casino. Nor did he even 
make the slightest effort to see his Hildegard 
again. She, on her part, plead a bad headache, 
and both she and her husband were absent 
from the Casino. M. de Brinavan, on the other 
hand, went at once to the marchioness, who was 
greatly surprised to see him come to her at such 
a late hour. 

“ Marchioness,” he said, when ushered in, “ I 
must ask your pardon for presenting myself 
here so late, but I know how warmly you are 
interested in the marriage of your favorite, M. 
de Gavary, with my niece. I reproach myself 
for having delayed so long the union between 
this child and your young friend. I come now 
to tell you that I give my cordial consent and 
that the wedding may take place whenever you 
desire.” 

Almost dumbfounded by this sudden and 
unexpected change, Madame de Variel looked 
at the good man with delight. She was far too 


The Battle Won . 


2 73 


clever and had too much tact not to notice in 
what a state of excitement her visitor was, who 
spoke and gesticulated in a very unusual way. 
She questioned him, but so delicately and with 
so much genuine interest, that the poor man 
could not resist her. He wept like a child, and 
told the marchioness all that had happened to 
him with M. Bailly and his wife. 

“You see,” he said, “ this has broken my heart. 
I never thought Hildegard was as fond of me as 
I would have liked my wife to be, but at least I 
trusted her, I esteemed her, — alas ! to think that 
at her age, with her face — And whom can I 
ever trust after this?” 

The shrewd old lady soon guessed the truth. 
If she had not felt sincerely for the poor, old 
man, she would have laughed heartily at the 
ridiculous figure Bailly must have presented 
with his lady-love of fifty. But her exquisite 
tact and her kind heart prompted her at once to 
do all she could to calm the distressed husband 


Romance of Trouville. 


2 74 


and to console him. The result was a happy 
one. When he left the house, he was almost 
reconciled to his wife, whom the marchioness 
represented as having tolerated in jest M. de 
Bailly’s foolish admiration. Then she sent 
instantly for Rene, and told him by what lucky 
accident the principal obstacle to his happiness 
had been removed. “ You owe it all to M. de 
Bailly,” she told him, “ and you ought to be 
exceedingly grateful to him, for he has done for 
you what he would certainly never have done 
for any other consideration.” 

Gavary hastened to thank him and to tell him 
what brilliant results had crowned his efforts. 
His sincere gratitude somewhat consoled Bailly 
for his almost painful sacrifice, and he began 
even to laugh at his adventure. The next morn- 
ing, about ten, the two young men were break- 
fasting together in a private room at the Golden 
Arm, when they saw M. de Cobrizo enter. He 
seemed to be in a rage. “ Sir !” he said to 


The Battle Won . 


275 


Gavary, “ I have just been told that, thanks to a 
miserable comedy, and to his persecution by 
your numerous friends, my uncle has consented 
to let you marry my sister-in-law. Since he is 
weak enough to let himself be persuaded to 
commit such a folly, I — I mean to prevent it. I 
declare to you, you shall not marry Miss 
Holmes?” 

Since the uncle had given way, Ren£ had felt 
so happy, that he would have liked to live at 
peace with all the world, and naturally, first of 
all, with Laura’s friends and connections. 
Instead of answering the enraged Portuguese, 
therefore, as he would probably have done 
under other circumstances, he was as calm and 
conciliatory as possible. The more he yielded, 
however, the more the other man, who seemed 
to be beside himself with wrath, began to 
demand and to reproach poor Rene for his idle 
life, his debts and his contemptibly small means. 
Getting hotter and hotter as he spoke, he 


276 


Romance of Trouville. 


became at last so impertinent, charging Gavary 
with a wish to marry Miss Holmes solely for 
her money, that the latter felt compelled to 
change his tone. At the moment when the two 
men began to hint at a duel, three heavy blows 
caused the door of the room to tremble. Upon 
Rent’s “ Come in,” Mat appeared and triumph- 
antly presented himself with the words : “Here 
I am !” 

“ Where do you come from, poor fellow ?” 

“ From Havre, sir !” 

“ But where have you been all this time ? I 
have been quite anxious about you.” 

“ Perhaps you thought I had deserted ?” 

“ No, Mat, I think you could not ever leave 
me !” 

“Well, there you are right, sir. Upon the 
word of a Breton, you are right there. And I 
never dreamt of running away, or of leaving 
you — upon my honor ! On the contrary, 1 was 
hard at work for you !” 


The Battle Won. 


2 77 


“ You must tell me that presently. Just now 
I am engaged with this gentleman. Wait for 
me in the garden. Tell them in the kitchen to 
give you a bottle of wine — that will clear up 
your ideas.” 

Then Rene turned once more to M. de 
Cobrizo, saying : “ Sir, after what has happened 
between us, we cannot continue this meeting. 
Our seconds will have to take charge of the 
matter.,” 

Furious at his adversary’s cool composure, 
the Portuguese was about to reply, but Rene as 
well as Bailly took no notice of what he said and 
left the room arm in arm.- When they reached 
the garden, they found Mat, and Gavary took 
him up to his room to hear his story. 

“ I had become sick at heart seeing you look 
so sad and mournful, and yet I had not the 
courage to ask you what was the matter with 
you, because I knew you do not like being 
questioned. ‘ There must be something in his 


278 


Romance cf Trouville . 


head that does not agree with him/ said I to 
myself in my cosy little home. You have seen 
it, M. de Bailly ?” he added, turning to Charles, 
who treated him with the same familiarity as his 
friend Gavary. “ I was troubled, so I sailed in 
the wake of my lieutenant — at a long distance, 
of course, besides, he was so deep in his 
thoughts, always walking with his nose on the 
ground, that I could have passed him before his 
face and he would have taken no notice of me — 
as sure as that table there, sir, the lieutenant led 
me a dance from ten in the morning till ten at 
night, my legs were fairly giving way. * Come,’ 
said I to myself, * it is .all right, I can let him walk 
about alone, no danger ! Nevertheless I could 
not do it.’ I stuck to him in the dark as in broad 
daylight. At last it was nearly ten o’clock at 
night, — I became aware that I was not the only 
man who made chase after my lieutenant. 
There was another vessel that would never 
touch him, but kept up the stern-chase. That 


The Battle Won . 


279 


looked suspicious. I determined to watch the 
stranger, to see if I could make out his flag. 
When we got down to the harbor, and out on 
the jetty, there was my man — and then there he 
was not. It was clear he was for hiding ! I 
I thought I had been mistaken — perhaps he was 
following someone else? I was mistaken. He 
only wanted to get ahead of the lieutenant and 
to wait for him near the end of the jetty. 

“Suddenly I hear a cry. I thought they had 
murdered my lieutenant ! My head got I know 
not what. I ran. 1 tell you as true as my name 
is Mathurin Lequellec, if the lieutenant had been 
killed, I would have eaten the murderer, as I 
had no weapons. But you, you, M. de Bailly, 
had already jumped upon him. Oh, I shall 
never forget you that, and if ever you stand in 
need of a poor old sailor's skin, just sing out for 
Mathurin Lequellec, and he’ll be there ! As 
long as there is a drop of blood in this old car- 
cass of mine, I tell you, it is at your service ! 


28 o 


Romance of Trouville . 


“ W ell, now, when I saw the blackguard run by 
me and throw himself into the water — I after 
him ! He swam well, the rascal. Oh ! honor to 
whom honor is due ! He swam like a veritable 
porpoise. I do not swim badly myself, a good 
many knots. Nevertheless, he went faster than I 
did. He went out, seaward. I saw he must 
have a boat somewhere, waiting for him, for he 
hailed it three times. At last an answer came. 
Then he swam in that direction — I always after 
him ! I heard him get on board the boat when 
I was yet a good many fathoms away. I cried : 
‘Stop thief! murder! murder!’ But don’t you 
wish ! I rather think they did not hear me, or 
perhaps — 

“ Luckily there was quite close to me a small 
boat that was tacking to wait for the tide. The 
men had heard me and picked me up. Then I 
told them what had happened and promised 
them a good, big sum, if they woiuld help me 
catching the rascal. ‘ There is not enough 


The Battle Won . 


281 


water for him to get back/ said the master. 
* He must either wait in the open or board some 
vessel in the roads. If he was on board the 
boat that has just gone by, they must be straight 
before us/ As he was saying this, the boat that 
held my brigand, raised a sail. We followed 
suit, but his boat was the faster of the two. 
Fortunately he boarded a large vessel, while we 
yet could see him. Five minutes later his boat 
met ours, on the return, but the men refused to 
talk. Then we rowed out to the ship, a fine, 
square-rigged three-master, that was to sail at 
sunrise for Rio Janerio. I went on board with 
the master of my boat and asked to see the cap- 
'tain. He was civil enough and told me that a 
man had just boarded his ship. Then I related 
to him my little story, and he sent for the gentle- 
man. Between us, the captain was very much 
embarrassed. He thought evidently I was tell- 
ing the truth, but the other man was dressed 
like a prince, he had his pocket full of money 


282 


Romance of Trouvilte. 


and his passport was in order. He had engaged 
his passage that afternoon and threatened the 
captain he would hold him responsible and 
demand heavy damages if he now sent him 
back to town. He jumped about on deck like a 
man-eater, I tell you ! 

“ Well, during this palaver the breeze was 
freshening and the captain, to save time, up with 
the anchor and off goes the ship ! They offered 
to send me back in a fishing boat, but I refused. 
I would have fought the whole crew, I tell you, 
rather than let go my assassin. 

“ I hardly know what would have become of 
me, if, when we were some twenty miles out, we 
had not met the Government cutter, Resolute, 
on her way back to Havre. The captain went 
as near as he could, and then told the man-of- 
war my story. The lieutenant who commanded 
the cutter, sent for me and questioned me very 
closely. When I mentioned your name, he said 
he knew you.” 


The Battle Won . 


283 


“ What was his name ?” 

“ M. Targer.” 

“Oh, yes! I remember, we met at the Cape 
of Good Hope/' 

“ Well, I saw that made a good impression, 
then I asked him for a list of his men, to see if 
there was not one on board who knew me. Sure 
enough, Lerail, who was maintop-man on board 
the Neptune, when I sailed on her as able sea- 
man, happened to be master on board the Reso- 
lute. They sent for him. He recognized me 
instantly. ‘ Look at him,’ he said, 1 how he has 
fattened ! It seems — •* ” 

“ That will do !” said Ren6, smiling. “ Spare 
us your dialogue ! What did the lieutenant 
do r 

“ Why ! when he saw that, and found Lerail 
knew me, and warranted me, body and soul, he 
said he would carry the unknown gentleman 
and myself back to Havre. The other man 
cried out, but the lieutenant told him to hush ! 


284 


Romance of Trouville . 


As he would not come willingly, they tied him 
up like a sausage and threw him on board. The 
lieutenant ♦told them to give me a thimbleful of 
brandy, for which, small as it was, I was duly 
grateful, and then he ordered me to present his 
compliments to you. When we landed at 
Havre, they took us both — the fine gentleman 
and myself — into court and they sent, at the same 
time, for the landlord of the Admiralty Hotel. 
They soon saw that my fine gentleman was 
wrong ; and they gave me my passport and paid 
me some compliments. The other man was sent 
below, that is to say, to prison. And I, I took a 
boat and here I am. The judge said he would 
write to you and request you to come down at 
once. That is my story, lieutenant !” 

He swallowed a big glass of brandy which 
Bailly had poured out for him, saying : “ Not a 

thimble, Mat!” He wiped his mouth with the 
back of his hand and waited for his master’s 
reply, looking like a man who is conscious of 


The Battle Won . 


285 


having done his duty. Gavary praised him for 
his intelligence and his courage and thanked him 
for his devotion. 

“ I think the affair has not been too badly 
managed,” he said in reply, and both the three- 
master and the cutter have obeyed orders nicely, 
considering they came from a simple Able 
Seaman. And, I do not mean to sing my own 
praise, but I do think I have squeezed that 
Brazilian.” 

“ What ? was the man a Brazilian ?” asked 
Ren£. 

“ Considering that he was on his way to Rio 
Janeiro.” 

“ That is no proof !” 

“ Then he talked Portuguese. Before the lieu- 
tenant he tried to deny it, but the captain of the 
full-rigged ship told him to his face that he was 
lying. Besides, he had a face like them people 
down there— a coal was not black in compari- 
son v* 


286 


Romance of Trouville . 


Bailly and Gavary looked at each other. The 
same thought had come to them. After the inex- 
plicable hatred of M. de Cobrizo for Gavary, this 
coincidence of nationality was certainly note- 
worthy. The portrait drawn by Mat of his fine 
gentleman agreed, moreover, perfectly with the 
description which the men in the Djalma gave 
of the person who had left Trouville in pursuit 
of Gavary. 

The latter recommended the strictest silence 
to his faithful servant, and remained alone with 
Bailly for some time. Then Gavary went to see 
the marchioness and told her of Cobrizo’s pro- 
voking conduct and the cruel embarrassment in 
which he found himself after such a meeting 
with his future brother-in-law. “ I need not tell 
you,” he concluded, “ that I am not afraid of a 
duel, but I fear the renewal of the objections 
that prevailed heretofore to my marriage with 
Miss Holmes. Even if it does not prevent it 


The Battle Won. 


287 


entirely, it would, of course, delay it a long 
time.” 

“ Will you let me make an attempt upon M. de 
Brinavan's goodness of heart?” asked the old 
lady. “ Rich as M. de Cobrizo is, he neverthe- 
less appreciates the fortune which his wife 
expects to inherit. Perhaps the fear of losing it 
may stop him.” 

“They will think I am afraid!” murmured 
Ren£. 

“What nonsense! A man who has fought 
four duels on one day, ought surely to be above 
such fears. Besides, remember, my friend, that 
your marriage is at stake ! It certainly deserves 
some little sacrifice of self-love.” 

“You are right!” answered Gavary. “ I rely 
on you !” 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

A DUEL STOPPED. 

Whilst the marchioness, indefatigable as 
women of that character are when they have a 
chance of aiding a friend, hastened to M. de 
Brinavan’s house, the seconds of the two parties 
met to consult. 

Compelled to carry out the instructions of 
their principal, Cobrizo’s seconds demanded a 
duel to continue till one of the combatants 
should fall, and under very unusual conditions. 
They demanded that the adversaries should be 
placed five yards apart, after having decided by 

lot which of them should fire first. Bailly and 

[288] 


A Duel Stopped, 


289 


his companion objected, saying that the pre- 
tended insult did not warrant such conditions. 
“We will not be witnesses to such a combat !” 
they declared. 

“ In our country we fight in every variety 
of ways,” said one of the opposite seconds, a 
Portuguese like his principal; “ my friend is the 
insulted party, and he has the right to claim the 
manner of fighting.” 

“ Leave me alone with your country,” 
exclaimed Rent’s other second, who could 
hardly restrain himself. “ If a Japanese were to 
seek a quarrel with me, would I have to gratify 
him and, because such is the pleasant custom of 
his native land, cut open my stomach before his 
face, while he is doing the same on his part?” 

The discussion became so hot that the seconds 
came near forgetting their duty and quarreling 
seriously. One of Cobrizo’s friends was reason- 
able enough ; but the other— his countryman— 
would not understand why Cobrizo should not 


290 


Romance of Trouville. 


have his way. At last, however, the former and 
Bailly succeeded in calming the two hot-headed 
young men, and the meeting broke up without 
having come to any conclusion. Cobrizo’s 
seconds went to his house to tell him of their 
failure. He was out; but as he was coming 
home, he met on the sands Gavary, who was 
walking up and down with Bailly and his other 
second. Over-excited perhaps by the whole 
affair, or possibly wishing to make the fight 
inevitable, he approached Gavary, looking at 
him impertinently. Ren£ controlled himself, 
but the Portuguese, carried away by his violent 
temper and his mysterious hatred of Gavary, 
uttered words that contained a coarse insult, 
and raised his hand to strike him. Gavary ’s 
second seized the arm in time, however, and 
sent Cobrizo rolling on the sand. Gavary had 
turned very pale and his eyes shone like those 
of a chained lion. 

“My dear friend,” he said to Bailly, “my 


A Duel Stopped \ 


291 


patience is exhausted. This duel must be 
fought. Accept all his conditions !” 

During this time Cobrizo had risen again. He 
came back to the group of young men in a state 
of such blind rage that his eyes seemed to start 
out of his face and k he was foaming like a wild 
boar at bay. 

“ Gently, sir !” said the officer. “ If you are 
going to fight a duel, I am at your service. If 
you want a vulgar row, I will send you my ser- 
vant, who understands that sort of thing. 
Only, do not touch me, or I shall put you in a 
condition that you will not be able to handle a 
pistol or a sword for many months !” 

Cobrizo’s two friends seized him, each by one 
arm, and thus kept him from committing himself 
still more shamefully. 

“ What a brute !” said Bailly. 

“ Here are his seconds coming back. I sup- 
pose they wish to speak to us 1” 

“ Let us go and meet them at once !” said 


292 


Romance of Trouville . 


Gavary, “ and let us settle everything for 
to-morrow. Now that a duel has become 
unavoidable, I confess I wish it were all over ! 
I will wait for you at the hotel.” 

Cobrizo’s unwarrantable conduct had, of 
course, put him altogether in the wrong, and his 
witnesses could no longer claim to make condi- 
tions. Nevertheless, they declared that their 
principal, never having drawn a sword, they 
could never consent to his facing an adversary 
who was famous for his skill with that weapon. 

“ So much the worse for M. de Cobrizo,” said 
Gavary ’s friends. “ A man who wants to be 
insolent must be prepared to take the conse- 
quences.” 

To avoid a new and perhaps heated discussion, 
it was agreed that they would all meet the next 
day at nine in the morning, and bring both 
swords and pistols. 

“ If M. de Gavary persists in demanding 
swords, M. de Cobrizo will meet him with the 


A Diiel Stopped. 


293 


swords; but we hope your friend will consent to 
use pistols.” 

When the seconds told Gavary the details of 
their interview, they found him unexpectedly 
sad at the thought of fighting another duel, but 
resolutely determined this time to end the mat- 
ter forever. After his friends had left him, he 
went at once to his dear, old confidante, the 
marchioness, to tell her that for the present all 
efforts at conciliation had to be abandoned. She 
told him in return that in the meantime M. de 
Brinavan had sent for his son-in-law to tell him 
that he would certainly disinherit his daughter 
if he persisted in his unwarrantable provocation. 
Cobrizo had become furious, and had replied 
that nothing in the world should prevent his kill- 
ing M. de Gavary. “ But after all, what has he 
done you, that you should hate him so bitterly,” 
the old gentleman had asked. The Portuguese 
had stammered an evasive answer and left the 
house, as he said, in order to tell his wife to 


294 


Romance of Trouville . 


make everything ready, so that they could leave 
to-morrow morning. 

A moment later Mme. de Cobrizo had come 
to her uncle all in tears. Her husband had just 
told her that he meant to take her away from 
her family, and to live hereafter in America. 
Great was the consternation in ail the houses 
connected with Mme. de Vareil. 

The next morning, at nine o’clock in the 
morning, Gavary and his two witnesses reached 
the place at the foot of the castle, where Ren£ 
had fought his four duels. What changes since 
that day ! At that time he hailed death 
welcome, and went almost gaily to a meeting for 
which he was himself at least partly responsible. 
Now, encouraged by new love and looking for- 
ward to a future full of love and happiness, he 
fought with the greatest reluctance. 

“ I do not think I have ever been accused of 
want of courage,” he said to Bailly, “ but I con- 
fess to you that my heart is heavy within me 


A Duet Stopped. 


*95 


and that I should think it cruel to be killed to- 
day !” 

Half an hour passed. No Cobrizo ! Towards 
ten o’clock a carriage was seen coming up from 
the bridge and stopping at the place where a 
footpath falls into the high-road to Cobourg. 
Two men got out; they were M. de Cobrizo’s 
two witnesses. 

“ What can this mean ?” Bailly asked, as no 
Cobrizo appeared. 

“ Where is your friend, gentlemen ?” he 
asked the two seconds. 

“ Is he not here?” asked one of them surprised. 

“ No, gentleman !” 

“ Then we do not know what has become of 
him. He was to pick us up in his carriage at 
half-past eight. We sent to his house to know 
why he did not come. They sent word, that 
he had left about nine o’clock, like a man in a 
great hurry, and without saying where he went. 
After waiting till ten o’clock we sent again to 


Romance of Trouville . 


296 


inquire if he had returned home. The answer 
was ‘no!’ Then we thought we had perhaps 
misunderstood each other, and he was prob- 
ably waiting for us here. There must have 
been some accident or — ” 

“ It is half-past ten now. If you wish it, we 
can wait half an hour longer !” 

An hour went by and M. de Cobrizo did not 
come. 

“ Gentlemen,” said Gavary’s friends, after a 
short consultation, “ we have waited more than 
two hours. We think that is enough, perhaps, 
even too much. If you do not object, we will 
go back to town.” 

M. de Cobrizo’s witnesses bowed, having no 
reply to make, and the five young men returned 
to Trouville. 

* * * * * 

VVhat had really happened was this : At the 
moment when the Portuguese had begun dress- 


A Duel Stopped. 


297 


ing that morning, a man had come to his house 
and asked to see him immediately. The ser- 
vants had told him to call again later, but he had 
insisted upon seeing M. de Cobrizo immediately. 
The latter had ordered him to be shown in. 
Five minutes had scarcely elapsed since this 
man had been shown into M. de Cobrizo’s room, 
when he and the master of the house came down 
stairs and left the house. The servants had 
noticed that M. de Cobrizo had not even taken 
time to shave. Both had hurried to the wharf 
and entered a boat that was waiting for them 
opposite the stockade. 

“ Well, it was time !” the owner of the boat 
said, pushing off vigorously. “ Five minutes 
more and we would have been high and dry. 
This abominable tide goes down with incredible 
rapidity. Luckily, here we are in the open.” 
They had hoisted a sail, and were off for 
Havre. 


298 


Romance of Trouville. 


The person who had been taken out of the 
three-masted ship, had declared his name to be 
Don Antonio Coimbo. As this was the name 
in his passport also, he was credited so far. He 
was a Brazilian subject, he added, but as he had 
denied his nationality on board the cutter, this 
contradiction was against him. He had tried 
to escape by saying that, though born in Brazil, 
he had always lived abroad, and even forgotten 
his native tongue. The fact, however, that the 
captain of the full-rigged ship testified to his 
having conversed with him in Brazilian, and his 
accent also, left no doubt on the mind of those 
who investigated the matter. 

Seeing that things were going badly with 
him, Coimbo had finally shut himself up in abso- 
lute silence. Although he had been searched 
like all prisoners when he was first com- 
mitted to jail, he had succeeded in concealing 
two banknotes of a thousand francs each, and 
five gold pieces. He demanded a separate cell 


A Duel Stopped. 


299 


but was told that there was but one, and that had 
two beds, of which one was already occupied. 

“ I want a cell in which I can be alone,” he 
said, and added : “ I will pay what you may 

ask.” 

“ Take this one,” said the jailer. “ The 
prisoner who is now in it will be set free to- 
morrow morning, and then I will see to it that 
you are alone.” 

The other man in the cell was a small man, 
with a sharp, cunning face. He had been mixed 
up with a fight among sailors, in which an 
American novice had been stabbed. This man, 
who was called Jean Mander, and who led a 
very problematic life, had been found hidden in 
a room, in which the murder had been com- 
mitted, and as his answers were not satisfactory, 
he had been committed to prison as a suspicious 
character. Then he had been recognized as a 
well-known and uncommonly clever smuggler, 
but in no way connected with the fray, and was, 


300 


Romance of Trouville, 


therefore, to be released after certain formalities 
had been fulfilled. 

Mander and Coimbo remained for some time 
each in his corner, watching each other very 
suspiciously. At last the Portuguese made some 
advances and a conversation began. “ Listen !” 
said the Brazilian, of a sudden, looking fixedly 
at his companion, “Would you like to earn a 
thousand francs ?” 

“ That depends,” answered Mander, who was 
a Norman and possessed all the shrewdness of 
his race. 

“The question is this: The jailer tells me you 
are to be set free to-night or to-morrow 
morning?” 

“ I have been promised that !” 

“ Well, then — will you undertake to carry a 
letter from me to somebody in Trouville ?” 

“To whom ?” 

“ You will find the name on the address. He 


A Duel Stopped. 


30 X 


is an immensely rich man and will pay you 
liberally.” 

“ Did you say a thousand francs?” 

“ Yes, and I say it again.” 

“ When shall I be paid ?” 

“ When you hand the letter to my friend. 
But I can give you two hundred in advance !” 

“ Hand them over !” 

“ Then I may write my letter ? But how will 
you manage to conceal the letter ?” 

“ That is my lookout. Smuggling is my 
profession. I promise you, your letter shall 
reach its destination.” 

“ But I have neither paper nor ink, nor a pen !” 
said the Brazilian. 

Mander shrugged his shoulders. “ Let us 
see the two hundred francs ?” Coimbo showed 
them. “ Very well,” said the Norman, “now I 
will find you writing material. He gave him a 
bit of a pencil and a scrap of paper, but always 
distrustful, he would never tell how he came to 


302 


Romance of Trouville. 


possess these articles. “ Make the note as short 
as possible,” he said, “ and above all, make haste ! 
They will be here directly to search me and all 
who are going to be set free.” 

This was Coimbo’s letter: “1 am held in the 
Havre prison; manage to save me. The bearer 
will give you all the information that is needed.” 
For greater security he wrote no address, but 
explained it to Mander very distinctly. “ You 
will go and see M. de Cobrizo,” he said to him, 
“ and you will take care to give this note to no 
one else but to himself. You will go and hunt 
him up wherever he may be.” 

Mander was not dismissed till late in the even- 
ing, but he at once hired a boat and left the 
same night for Trouville, where he discharged 
his duty faithfully, as has been stated. 

M. de Cobrizo no sooner reached Havre, than 
he hurried, contrary to Mander’s advice, to the 
jail. His experience in America had given him 
the idea that nothing in this world could resist 


A Duel Stopped. 


303 


the power of money, and thus he asked to see 
Coirnbo, showing in his open hand a few gold 
pieces. The jailer naturally asked for his per- 
mit, and when the Portuguese confessed that he 
had no such paper, he refused. “ Have you any 
special interest in wishing to see the prisoner?’’ 
he asked, looking at the strange visitor with a 
searching eye. 

“ He is a count^man of mine,” replied Cobrizo, 
who saw that he might easily awaken suspicions. 

“ Well, then, you have only to comply with 
the regulations,” resumed the jailer, giving him 
the required information with a politeness which 
almost everywhere is accorded to money. 

“ Very well,” said the Portuguese. “ I will go 
and see the judge at one.” 

In fact, however, he did not in the least intend 
to interview any judge on earth. He was far 
too much afraid of the lynx-eyes of justice and 
began to feel that he was walking on dangerous 
ground. When he returned to the cafe, where 


304 


Romance of Trouville. 


Mander was waiting for him, he thought more- 
over he was shadowed by some one. He found 
the smuggler drinking hard with two, not invit- 
ing-looking, English sailors. Cobrizo took him 
aside and told him his failure. 

“ I told you so,” said Mander, who had evi- 
dently other things on his conscience besides a 
little smuggling, to judge from his intimate 
knowledge of prisoners and prison-regulations. 
“ You can do much with your money, my dear 
sir, you see, but still it takes time to look 
around and dress your batteries.” 

“ I fancy they are shadowing me,” he said. 

Mander got up, pushed the curtain a little 
aside, and looked out into the street. “ By — !” 
he exclaimed, “ I had warned you ! Believe me, 
sir, if you have any little matter on your con- 
science, you had better not stay in France much 
longer !” 

“Where should I go?” 

“ Of course, to England j” 


A Duel Stopped ’ 


305 


“ And my wife — and my children ?” 

“ It will be safer to write to them from Eng- 
land than from a French prison. Have you a 
passport ?” 

44 No!” 

“ That is bad ! Besides, it might be even now 
too late to have it vis£d by the police. The 
mischief is that just now they cannot carry any 
passengers across who have not regular pass- 
ports. Have you at least money with you ?” 

44 1 have forty thousand francs !” 

A flash of strange meaning lighted up the 
eyes of the smuggler; his ears were tingling. 
“ Well,” he said, after a pause, 44 I see only one 
way to save you.” 

44 What is that ?” 

“ You must shave off your moustaches and 
your whiskers. The owner of this cafe, who is 
a friend of mine, will lend you some sailors’ 
clothes. I will in like manner disguise myself 
so as not to be recognized. Then we can start 


3°6 


Romance of Trouville. 


with those two sailors. I will take you to 
another house on the wharf, where we can wait 
for the tide to rise. When night breaks, we will 
steal out and get into the yawl of these two 
Englishmen that is lying amid the fishing boats; 
they will take us to their lugger, the Good Fellow, 
whose captain I know. You will arrange 
matters with him. If you pay him well, he will 
take you on board his vessel and manage to 
land you somewhere on the English coast.” 

The smuggler’s plan seemed to be all right, 
but Cobrizo could not make up his mind to leave 
Coimbo behind, evidently from fear that he 
might make unpleasant revelations. 

“ No,” he said, “ I cannot leave in this way » 
I will propose to you another plan. You surely 
have friends in the jail, or you know people who 
have such friends ?” 

“ Well ?” 

“ Here are two thousand francs — you must 
find a way for Coimbo to escape. If by 


A Duel Stopped. 


307 


to-morrow he is a free man, you shall have 
twenty thousand francs.” 

Mander’s face was the picture of cupidity. 

“ And when will you pay me ?” 

“ Manage to keep these English sailors at our 
disposal. The moment Coimbo puts his foot 
into their boat, I give you ten thousand francs, 
and the other ten thousand you will receive as 
soon as he lands safely on English soil.” 

“ You ask for impossibilities. You foreigners 
have no idea how difficult such things are in 
France. With you, I am told, money does every- 
thing and buys every jailer in the land. But 
here, in France, they are so closely watched 
they cannot serve you even if they wish to do it 
ever so much. They would be ruined for life. 
Nevertheless, twenty thousand francs are well 
worth taking some trouble to earn them. I pro- 
mise you this much, that if your friend does not 
escape, it shall not be my fault.” 

“ How are you going to do it ?” 


3 °8 


Romance of Trouville. 


“That I do not know yet myself. I must go 
and see some friends of mine. I know a cafe, 
where I am sure to meet some people who know 
that prison and some of the jailers. Only, leave 
it all to me and do not interfere — you would 
spoil the whole thing.” 

“ Where shall I wait for you ?” 

“ Til take you to a friend of mine, where you 
.will spend the night. He lives very near the 
place where the yawl of the two Englishmen is 
lying. I will see to it that they are in readiness 
at any time we may want them. As for you, 
you must be very cautious, and not leave the 
house until you have seen me again !” 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE SMUGGLER’S END. 

Mander took the Portuguese to his friend’s 
house. As soon as the unlucky man was alone, 
he wrote to his wife and to his witnesses to 
explain how some very important business, on 
which a large portion of his means depended, 
had compelled him to leave immediately for 
London. He promised, however, to be back by 
the end of the week, and requested his seconds 
to apologize in his name to M. de Gavary. 

“ As soon as I return,” he wrote to them, “ we 
shall begin again where we left off, and I hope 
M. de Gavary will kindly wait till then.” 

During this time, Mander prepared his cam- 

1309] 


3 10 


Romance of Trouvitle . 


paign. Stimulated by the promise of so large a 
sum of money, he really employed all the 
resources of his ingenious mind and his vast 
experience. By a large amount of cunning, of 
audacity, and above all, by spending money lib- 
erally, he succeeded in smuggling into Coim- 
bo’s cell, a file, a poignard and a knotted rope- 
At the same time he let him know that friends 
would be at the foot of the wall, to guide him in 
his flight. In case he should find nobody there, 
he was told very accurately where to turn in 
order to get a boat. 

An accident, which it is not necessary to 
explain here, but which was a matter of pure 
chance, and which no precautions could have 
foreseen, much less prevented, came near ruin- 
ing the whole project. Favored by the tumult 
and the confusion created by this accident, 
Coimbo escaped from his cell. At the moment, 
however, when he came out upon the street, a 
sentinel placed there, stopped him with his bay- 


The Smuggler s End. 


3ii 


onet. Threatened with instant capture, the 
fugitive threw himself flat down ; then, leaping 
like a tiger-cat upon the soldier, he struck him a 
blow with his dagger. Unfortunately for him, 
he had to do with an old African campaigner, a 
solidly built and resolute zouave, who, in spite 
of his wound, held on to his captive. Mander 
came to his rescue. Seeing himself attacked by 
two men, the soldier replied with a thrust of his 
bayonet, and nailed the Portuguese to the wall. 

As people were now coming out of the jail in 
answer to the cries of the sentinel, Mander took 
tp his legs, but was hotly pursued. At the 
instant when he reached the wharf, utterly out 
of breath, not a yard from the place where M. de 
Cobrizo was waiting for him, another soldier, who 
had followed him closely on his heels, seized him 
by the tails of his coat and threw him down. 
Cobrizo rushed to the rescue. At the same mo- 
ment, however, five or six other soldiers 
appeared, whom the cries of their comrade had 


3 12 


Romance of Trouville. 


attracted. Cobrizo saw at a glance that the battle 
was lost and fled in the direction of the yawl. As 
she was only a little distance from the wharf, he 
plunged, all dressed as he was, into the water to 
get on board. He was an excellent swimmer, 
but his clothes hampered him considerably, and 
he reached the boat only with great difficulty. 
The men drew him in, almost fainting, and 
asked : 

“ Where are the others ?” 

“ Taken by the soldiers/’ he said. “We can- 
not wait for them. Come, be quick, and let us 
get on board your lugger !” 

Just then Mander’s voice was heard, calling 
for help. The smuggler also had escaped from 
the hands of his pursuers and thrown himself 
into the water. The two Englishmen pushed 
the boat in the direction from which the cries 
came and reached him an oar, which he seized, 
and thus climbed into the yawl. 


The Smuggler s End, 




“ Off with us now !” he said to the sailors. 
“ Pull hard, we are pursued !” 

The Englishmen used their Herculean arms 
to good advantage, and the boat Hew like a bird, 
skimming the waves, which grew higher as they 
got farther from the harbor. During this time 
Mander told Cobrizo the failure of his plan. 
He reproached him with having abandoned him 
to the hands of his enemies. Cobrizo returned 
the reproach as far as Coimbo was concerned. 
The Portuguese reasoned, correctly enough, 
that he had promised to pay twenty thousand 
francs for Coimbo, if he were free, but that as 
his friend was still a prisoner, he owed nothing. 

Both were embittered by failure and began to 
quarrel fiercely. At last the Portuguese seized 
Mander by the throat and held him so tightly 
that he was nearly strangled. The sailors tore 
him from his hands. Mander was furious, but 
feeling that he was no match for Cobrizo, he 
went and took a seat in the bow, where he soon 


3H 


Romance of Trouville . 


carried on an animated conversation in English 
with the two bold sailors. After a little while 
Cobrizo became conscious that he had gone too 
far and committed a great blunder by falling out 
with this man, at whose mercy he was at this 
moment. He also noticed that the two sailors, 
whilst rowing and talking among themselves, 
now and then looked at Cobrizo in a manner that 
was all but reassuring. He tried to enter into 
conversation with them, but they made no reply. 
Although he could not distinctly hear what they 
said, he made out enough to see that they were 
talking of himself, and of the money he had on 
his person. Forty thousand francs was cer- 
tainly a big sum for persons who never boasted 
of their honesty, and who daily risked their lives 
for much smaller sums. Cobrizo began to real- 
ize that if they killed him, they would not even 
be held responsible, and that they could murder 
him without the slightest fear of punishment. 
Whilst watching them, therefore, out of the 


The Smuggler s End. 


3i5 


corner of his eyes, he unbuttoned his clothes, 
one by one, so as to be ready to throw himself 
into the water at the first sign of danger. But 
at the moment when he stooped to undo the 
strings of his shoes, a touch with an oar, skill- 
fully applied, turned the yawl broadside to a 
huge wave. The violent shock upset the 
Portuguese, and before he could make the slight- 
est effort to rise again, one of the boatmen threw 
a piece of sail-cloth over his head, which Mander 
tied firmly around his throat, while the two 
sailors held the poor man fast. 

“ Hold him well !” said Mander. “ The pocket- 
book is in the pocket of his overcoat ! ’ 

The thing was not very easy, for the instinct 
of self-preservation lent unnatural strength to 
the powerful Portuguese. But he had to do 
with two of those Herculean giants, of whom 
the British Navy has so many, and they easily 
got the better of his desperate resistance. They 
took his pocket-book and his purse. 


3 l6 


Romance of Trouville . 


“Now into the water with him !” said one of 
the sailors, while Mander was showing the bank- 
notes. 

“Not yet!” cried the smuggler. “We must 
leave him some money, so that it may not look 
like robbery. They will think he threw himself 
into the water to escape from the soldiers, and 
was drowned in the attempt.” 

Cobrizo could hear what they were saying, 
and at these words he made so violent an effort 
that the boat was very nearly upset. 

“ Make haste, Mander !” cried one of the sailors 
with a horrible oath. “ The rascal is as strong 
as an ox and might escape after all. Then the 
boat goes to the devil.” 

Mander hastily rammed two notes of a thou- 
sand francs each into one pocket of their 
prisoner, and a few gold pieces into another, 
and once more tightened the cord that fastened 
the sail-cloth around the neck of the Portuguese. 

“ Off with him !” he said to the sailors. 


The Smuggler s End ' 


3*7 


They seized the unfortunate man by the legs 
and threw him into the water, turning a deaf 
ear to his cries and his promises. 

“ Where is the rope?” asked Mander. 

They handed him a rope which they had 
fastened to Cobrizo’s body, and the smuggler 
said to them : 

“ Row away now — we’ll tow him for awhile. 
Then, when he is done for, we will drop the 
rope and let him go where he chooses.” 

And the yawl flew out into the open sea, 
towing along the body of the wretched man, 
whose cries were deadened by the sail-cloth 
around his head and the roaring of wind and 


waves. 



CHAPTER XX. 

CONCLUSION. 

On the day after the events narrated, M. de 
Gavary received three letters, two from Havre 
and one from Pont. The first, signed by a 
priest, whose foreign name was either Spanish 
or Portuguese, begged him instantly to come 
over to Havre, where a dying man had import- 
ant secrets to reveal to him and forgiveness for 
great wrongs to solicit. The two other letters 
came from the two judges of Havre and of Pont ; 
they asked for certain information and announced 
to Rene, that the man who had tried to murder 
him, had probably been discovered. 

Gavary left immediately for Havre and went 


Conclusion . 


3i9 


to see the priest who had written to him. He 
was shown by this man into the infirmary of the 
prison, to the bed ot a man whose condition 
appeared to be desperate indeed. 

“Do you know me?” asked the man, raising 
himself on his elbow, the better to watch 
Gavary's face. 

“ No, sir !” replied the latter, after having 
examined him for some time carefully. 

“ It was I who twice tried to kill you,” 
replied the dying man ; “ first at Etretat and 
then on the Havre jetty.” 

“ What have I ever done to you, and why did 
you wish my death ?” asked the young man. 

“ Do you remember the counting-house at 
Anamy, sir? My real name is Carlo 
Stramero !” 

“ The bookkeeper of Sefior Peralda ?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ The man who opposed such obstinate resist- 


3 20 


Romance of Trouville . 


ance to my men, and who afterwards attempted 
to poison us all.” 

“ Alas ! yes, sir ! My life has been a wretched 
life. I was brought up among banditti, without 
faith or honor. I now repent of the crimes 1 
have committed. Would to God it were not 
too late ! At least the worthy priest here at my 
side, bids me hope. It is he who has led me 
back to God and advised me to make a full con- 
fession of my crimes. At least 1 shall not die 
like so many of my former comrades, who refuse 
the succor of religion with blasphemy on their 
lips, cursing heaven and earth, insulting the 
shades of their victims, and trying to do harm 
even after death ! Thanks be to God that at 
least some of us, on the threshold of that 
eternity which opens before us, recognize at last 
the omnipotence and the endless mercy of that 
God whom they have so long tried to despise !” 
Here the priest interfered, advising the doomed 


Conclusion. 


3 21 


man not to exhaust himself, and thus to render 
his confession impossible. 

It appeared that Coimbo, alias Carlo Stramero, 
mortally wounded by the bayonet of the sentinel, 
had at first broken out into such fury and rage, 
that they had been compelled to put him into a 
strait-jacket. Fortunately for him, a priest of the 
I same country as he, had chanced to hear that 
. one of his countrymen was dying at the infirm- 
ary. He had immediately hastened to his bed- 
side, to carry to him the consolations of his 
sacred office. The patient had at first received 
him with mockings, insults and blasphemies, but 
the good priest had courageously persisted, 
returning for all his insults nothing but words 
1 of gentleness and forgiveness. The result had 
been most gratifying, as the dying man had 
already shown. 

He now told M. de Gavary in detail, how he 
had followed him and missed him at Etretat, 
and again at Havre, but he added at once that 


3 22 


Romance of Trouville . 


he had only been the tool of the vengeance of 
another man. 

“ No doubt Seflor Peralda’s ?” the young man 
asked. 

“ Yes, sir ; but the Seflor Peralda had changed 
his name, as I had done. He now calls himself 
Don Manoel de Cobrizo.” 

Gavary had expected this revelation and was, 
therefore, not surprised. He asked, however, 
with real curiosity: “ Has Don Manoel any 
other ground for hating me beside the destruc- 
tion of his agency and his counting-house at 
Anamy ?” 

“ Was that not enough, sir ? You had robbed 
him by one blow of one-third of all he possessed, 
and what was worse, you had humbled his pride. 
He had, up to that time, been an extraordinarily 
lucky man; nothing ever went amiss with him. 
All his enterprises were crowned with success. 
But from the hour when his establishment at 
Anamy was destroyed, he literally went from 


Conclusion . 


323 


misfortune to misfortune. Then, in the burning 
of his dwelling-house, Inana, a Creole woman, 
whom he loved passionately, had perished trying 
to save her child. Hence he cherished a hatred 
against you which nothing but death could ever 
extinguish. 

“ What has become of him ?” Ren6 asked, 
thinking with horror of the scandal which 
Cobrizo’s arrest would cause, and of the dis- 
grace it would bring down upon the family of his 
future wife. 

“ I think he is dead, sir,” said the priest. “ This 
morning they have found near the lower 
wharf the body of a drowned man. Besides two 
notes of a thousand francs each, a number of 
letters addressed to M. de Cobrizo have been 
found in his clothes — for he was fully dressed. 
Not a trace of a wound has been found. Even 
his purse was still there and several gold pieces 
in it. Nevertheless, the physicians think his 
death must has been the effect of a crime, 


Romance of Trouville . 


3 2 4 


although they do not possess absolute proof. 
On the other hand, there is ample evidence to 
prove that this was the same person who yester- 
day appeared at the prison in which Coimbo 
was confined, and urgently demanded to see him. 
They have immediately sent for the jailer to 
identify the body, and he has instantly recog- 
nized M. de Cobrizo as the man who offered him 
any amount of money if he would let him see 
Coimbo without the requisite permit. You 
may have heard that an attempt was made last 
night to free Coimbo, and that the soldiers pur- 
sued two men, who threw themselves into the 
water. They now suppose that M. de Cobrizo 
was one of these men, and that he was drowned 
in the effort to reach some vessel.” 

“ I am going to try and ascertain how that is,” 
said Ren£. “ I will see if I recognize the body, 
and then I’ll write to the family to suppress the 
whole unfortunate story.” 

“Can you forgive me?” asked Stramero, who 


Conclusion. 


325 


was rapidly sinking and kept alive only by most 
powerful cordials. 

“ With all my heart !” replied Gavary, deeply 
moved. “ May Divine and human Justice for- 
give you as I do, if you escape with your life !” 

The poor man made a sign that he had lost all 
hope. 

“ We must never despair,” said Ren6. “If 
you survive, I shall do all I can to prevent your 
being tried for it. If you should succumb, you 
must tell me what I can do to cheer your last 
moments, and I promise you I will do whatever 
you may ask.” 

“Thanks! thanks!” stammered the dying 
man, deeply touched by so much generosity. 
“ Since you are so very kind, I’ll beg you to have 
some masses said for the salvation of my soul.” 

“ I promise it shall be done !” replied Gavary. 
“ In the meantime, I shall leave some money 
with the authorities, so that you may enjoy all 
<vhat the regulations of the prison may permit.” 


326 


Romance of Trouville. 


He then remained a few minutes longer with 
the venerable priest and left him at last to go to 
Sainte Adresse. When he got there, he met M. 
de Brinavan, who had come from Havre with 
the second trip of the steamer. In spite of the 
great change which the absence of moustaches 
and of whiskers produced in M. de Cobrizo’s 
face, both men could not for a moment hesitate 
to recognize Cobrizo. They went together to 
the judge, to prevail upon him to give as little 
publicity to this sad story as might be compati- 
ble with his duty. The death of the two princi- 
pal criminals made this task far more easy than 
it would otherwise have been. Stramero had 
succumbed a few hours after his touching inter- 
view with Ren6. 

All necessary measures were taken to have the 
remains of the Portuguese suitably interred, but 
on the official registers he appeared under his 
real name, Peralda. Thanks to this circumstance, 
his death remained a secret for the world, and 


Conclusion. 


327 


the report spread, that he was living in England. 
To avoid all idle reports, and especially all 
rumors about the duel, Ren£ disappeared for a 
few days and did not contradict the report that 
he had gone to London in order to meet his 
adversary there, and to give him the long-post- 
poned satisfaction. 

In the meantime, M. and Mme. de Brinavan 
and their two nieces left Trouville for their 
country-seat, and here gradually the whole fam- 
ily re-assembled. Then only it was deemed safe 
to inform Mme. de Cobrizo of the real charac- 
ter and the death of her husband. For several 
weeks her relatives feared for her reason, but 
she fortunately rallied at last and tried to forget 
the short, but unspeakably sad episode in her 
life. Still she had aged ten years in a few 
months, and could never console herself for 
having been the wife of such a pretender. The 
betrothal of M. de Gavary to her sister, was an 
additional blow. Under its influence she entered 


Romance of Trouville. 


328 


a convent, but soon found that she was not made 
for a life of prayer and meditation. After a 
short month she re-entered life and is living now 
in Florence. 

Laura married M. de j Ga vary, and all think 
them happy who see the two young people pass 
by in their elegant carriage, drawn by two 
thoroughbreds. In the open barouche hus- 
band and wife are seated facing a Bretonne 
in her picturesque national costume, who holds 
in her arms a marvellous little being, from whom 
Madame de Gavary can hardly take her eyes. 

The happiest of our friends, after Ren6 and 
Laura, is undoubtedly M. de Brinivan, whose 
wife has withdrawn to her country-seat, and 
amuses herself with building every six weeks a 
new kiosk in her garden. Her husband prefers 
the city and the society of his new nephew and 
niece, who are sincerely attached to the kind old 
man, and make his old age all the happier, as his 
Hildegard had never spoilt him by demonstra- 


Conclusion . 


329 


tive affection. He regularly takes his three 
walks daily, comes twice a day to see how much 
his great-nephew has grown during the last 
twelve hoiyrs, and spends his evenings with the 
Marchioness of Vareil. He has become her 
great admirer, plays his game of domino with 
her unfailingly every night, and cordially 
returns the affection with which she regards her 
excellent old friend. Nor have Laura and Ren<§ 
forgotten what they owe to their kind and 
clever friend, who helped them so effectually in 
their young life. Not a day passes on which 
Laura does not go and see the old marchioness, 
who is her guide in society, and to all intents 
and purposes a loving mother to her devoted 
daughter. 


THE END. 


EDITH TREVOR’S SECRET. 


BY 


MRS. HARRIET LEWIS, 

Author of “ Her Double Life,” “ Lady Kildare “Beryl's 
Husband ,” “ The Two Husbands ,” “ Sundered 
Hearts “ Edda's Birthright,” etc., etc . 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WARREN B. DAVIS. 


12mo. 370 Pagres. Handsomely Bound in Cloth. Price, $1.00# 

Paper Cover, 50 Cents. 


“ Edith Trevor’s Secret” is a romantic love story, the scene of 
which is laid in the Black F orest of Germany, and in the rich and 
aristocratic circles of London society. The heroine is an exquisite 
girl, who has been brought up in the shadow of the mountains, 
where she is discovered by a young English nobleman. When 
they have become betrothed, the jealousy and ambition of others 
interpose to prevent the marriage, and a rapid succession of inci- 
dents and situations of surpassing interest follow. 

For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or sent, post- 
paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, 

ROBERT BONNER’S SONS, 

Cor, William and Spruce Streets, New York. 


CECIL ROSSE: 

A SEQUEL TO 

EDITH TREVOR’S SECRET. 


BY 

MRS. HARRIET LEWIS, 

Author of “ Her Double Life” “ Lady Kildare ,” “ Beryl's 
Husband ,” “ The Two Husbands,” “ Sundered 
Hearts ,” “ Edda's Birthright,” etc., etc , 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WARREN B. DAVIS. 


12mo. 370 Pagres. Handsomely Bound in Cloth. Price, $1.00. 

Paper Cover, 50 Cents. 


“ Cecil Rosse ” is a continuation and conclusion of the extra- 
ordinary story of “ Edith Trevor’s Secret.” It displays a wonder- 
ful complication of circumstances involving people of highest and 
lowest degree. It shows how much can be accomplished by the 
unstinted use of money, and how helpless innocent girlhood is in 
the face of diabolical ingenuity with money at command. The 
great interest of this story centers in the charming heroine and 
her high-minded lover. 

For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or sent, postpaid, 
on receipt of price, by the publishers, 

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Cor. William and Spruce Streets, New York. 


LIDA CAMPBELL, 


OR 

DRAMA OF A LIFE. 

51 JJcwel. 


BY 

JEAN KATE LUDLUM, 

Author of “ Under Oathf “ Under a Cloud f “ John Win- 
throp's Defeat ,” etc. 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY H. M. EATON. 

12mo. 351 Pages. Handsomely Bound in Cloth.. Price, $1.00. 

Paper Cover, 50 Cents. 


This beautiful story was written one year ago. Even then the 
author had premonitory symptoms of the fell disease which so 
recently struck her down in her youth. Her talent was develop- 
ing rapidly, and she promised to become one of the most popular 
writers of the day. “ Lida Campbell, or Drama of a Life,” is a 
novel of the present. Its characters and incidents are familiar, 
and have the strong interest of natural sequence and probability. 
The emotional power which is a marked characteristic of Miss 
Ludlum’s work is strongly wrought out in this novel, and the 
most casual reader cannot fail to be intensely interested in it. 

For sale by ' . booksellers and newsdealers, or sent, post- 
paid, on re' _ipt of price, by the publishers, 

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EUGENIE GRANDET 


TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF 


Honore De Balzac. 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY JAMES FAQ AN, 


12mo. Bound in Cloth, $1.00. Paper Cover, 50 Cents. 


“ Eugenie Grandet” is one of the greatest of novels. It is the 
history of a good woman. Every student of French is familiar 
with it, and an opportunity is now afforded to read it in a good 
English translation. The lesson of the book is the hideousness 
of the passion of the miser. Eugenie’s father is possessed by it 
in a degree of intensity probably unknown in America, and to 
our public it will come as a revelation. What terrible suffering 
he inflicts upon his family by his ferocious economy and unscru- 
pulousness only Balzac’s matchless narrative could show. The 
beautiful nature of Eugenie shines like a meteor against the black 
background, and her self-sacrifice, her sufferings and her superb 
strength of character are wrought out, and the story brought to a 
climax, with the finest intellectual and literary power and dis- 
crimination. 

For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or _ nt, postpaid, 
on receipt of price, by the publishers, 

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COR. William and Spruce Streets, New York. 


THE COUNTRY DOCTOR 

21 5Jot)d. 

BY 

HONORE DE BALZAC, 

Author of “ Cesar Birotteau,” “ The Alchemist “ Cousin 
Pons, ” “Eugenie Grandet,” etc., etc . 

Translated from the French by Mrs. Fred. M. Dey. 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WARREN B. DAVIS. 

12mo. 350 Pages. Handsomely Bound in Cloth. Price, $1.00. 

Paper Cover, 60 Cents. 


“ The Country Doctor ” is one of Balzac’s greatest creations. 
It is the portrait of an ideal man in a situation where superior 
ability and knowledge enable him to raise a whole community to 
a higher level of morality, prosperity and intelligence. It is a 
study in social science far more valuable than dull treatises and 
histories of social experiments. It is full of human interest and 
feeling and that wonderful realism which makes all of Balzac’s 
works like veritable stories of real life. The heroine is a creature 
of rare beauty and charm. 

For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or sent, post* 
paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, 

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MORRIS JULIAN’S WIFE 


21 Nooel. 


BY 

ELIZABETH OLMIS. 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WARREN B. DAVIS. 


12mo. 350 pag-es. Handsomely Bound in Cloth. Price, $1.00. Paper 
Cover, 50 Cents. 


u Morris Julian’s Wife” is a novel of unusual merit. When 
published as a serial in the Ledger , it was greatly liked. It is the 
story of a young wife who, imagining a lack of sympathy in her 
husband, leaves him. The story of her wanderings by sea and 
land in Norway, in Scotland and in Switzerland and her hus- 
band’s unwearied search for her and loyalty form one of the most 
original and engrossing narratives ever produced in the form of a 
novel. The character of Satia Julian is peculiar to our epoch, 
and one which will attract every student of our society and man- 
ners, and especially our bright and cultivated American women. 

For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or sent, post- 
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Another New Novel by Miss Libbey. 


FLORABEL’S LOVER. 


BY 

LAURA JEAN LIBBEY, 

Author of “ A Mad Betrothal ,” 11 lone,” “ Parted by Fate,” 
“ We Parted at the Altar,” etc., etc. 

BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED BY F. A. CARTER. 

12mo. 357 Pagres. Handsomely Bound in Cloth. Price, $1.00. 

Paper Cover, 50 Cents. 


“ Florabel’s Lover ” is a story of rival belles in a country vil- 
lage. It is an interesting and true picture of woman’s life. 
Whatever criticism may say of Miss Libbey’s literary abilities, 
there is no question of her power to interest and charm the 
majority of American readers. Her stories deal with the charac- 
ters, scenes and incidents of our daily experience, and appeal 
with all the force of nature and truth to the heart. 11 Florabel’s 
Lover ” is a love story. It is easy reading. It does not require 
any effort to understand it ; and once begun, it holds the reader’s 
interest to the end. 

For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or sent, post- 
paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, 

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A REMARKABLE NOVEL. 


ZINA’S AWAKING 

21 Nood. 

BY MRS. J. KENT SPENDER, 

Author of “ Till Death Us do Part,” 1 1 Gabrielle de Bourdaine ,” 
“ Mr . Nobody,” etc. 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WARREN B. DAVIS. 

12mo. Handsomely Bound in Cloth. Price, $1.00. Paper Cover, 

50 Cents. 


SOME OPINIONS OF THE ENGLISH PRESS: 

Liverpool Mercury. — “ In this noble story, Mrs. Spender takes 
her place in the front rank of living English novelists. Apart 
from the style, which is clear and beautiful, there is throughout 
the whole work a play of such intense sympathy with all that is 
noble in manhood and womanhood, and at the same time such a 
manifestation of self-conscious strength, that the conviction is 
irresistible that in this writer we have an author whose name will 
some day be a household word.” 

London Guardian. — “ Has undoubted merits of its own in the 
way of freshness and originality, and an unusual depth of thought 
and earnestness of purpose.” 

London Spectator. — “ Mrs. Spender is not a mere manufacturer 
of fiction for the libraries; she is an artist with a fine feeling tor 
artistic ends, and a true instinct for the means by which they are 
to be attained.” 

London Standard. — “Mrs. Spender is well apace with the 
thoughts and reflections that bewilder the ; advanced ’ young 
women of our day, and she writes with restraint and perception.” 

Scottish Leader. — “ Mrs. Spender can always be relied on to 
make her stories interesting. . . . ‘Zina’s Awaking ’ is an 

eminently readable novel.” 

Freeman's Journal. — “A literary work of art. . . . Un- 

doubtedly able and well written.” 

For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or sent, postpaid, 
on receipt of price, by the publishers, 

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THE CHOICE SERIES 


1. -A MAD BETROTHAL. By Laura Jean 

Libbey. Cloth, $1.00 ; paper, 50 cts. 

2. — HENRY M. STANLEY. By H. F. Red- 

dall. Cloth, $1.00 ; paper, 50 cts. 

3 -HER DOUBLE LIKE. By Mrs. Har- 
riet Lewis. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cts. 

4. — UNKNOWN. By Mrs. Southworih. 

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5. — THE GUNMAKER OK MOSCOW. By 

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6. — MAUD MORTON. By Major A. R. 

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7. — THE HIDDEN HAND. By Mrs. 

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8. — SUNDERED HEARTS. By Mrs. Har- 

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9. — THE STONE-CUTTER OF LISBON. 

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10. — LADY KILDARE. By Mrs. Harriet 

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11. — CRIS ROCK. By Captain Mayne Reid. 

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12. — NEAREST AND DEAREST. By Mrs. 

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13. — THE BAILIFF’S SCHEME. By Mrs. 

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14. — A LEAP IN THE DARK. By Mrs. 

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15. — THE OLD LIFE’S SHADOWS. By 

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17. — IONE. By Laura Jean Libbey. Cloth, 

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18. -FOR WOMAN’S LOVE. By Mrs. E. D. 

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19. — CESAR BTROTTEAIT. By Honore De 

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20. THE BARONESS BLANK. By 
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21. — PARTED BY KATE. By Laura Jean 

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22. -THE FORSAKEN INN. By Anna 

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23. -0 TTIL IE ASTER’S SILENCE. 

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26. — UNDER OATH. -An Adirondack 

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27. — COUSIN PONS. From the French of 

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3(u^h- Q 

,On,0 


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29— LILITH. By Mrs. E. D. E. N. Sc 
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30. — REUNITED. By A Popular Soul, 

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31. — MRS. HAROLD STAGG. By Robert 

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32. — THE BREACH OF CUSTOM. From 

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33. — THE NORTHERN LIGHT. Trans 

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35. — A LOVE MATCH. By Sylvanus 

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36. — A MATTER OF MILLIONS. By Anna 

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37. — EUGENIE GRANDET. By Honore 

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38. — THE IMPROVISATORE. Translated 

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39. -PAOLI. THE WARRIOR BISHOP, 

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40. — UNDER \ CLOUD. By Jean Kate 

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41. — WIFE AND WOMAN. Translated 

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42. — A N INSIGNIFICANT WOMAN. 

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43. — THE CARLETONS. By Robert Graut. 

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44. — M A D E ill O 1 S E L LE DESROCHES. 

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45. — THE BEADS OF TASMER. By 

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46. -JOHN WINTHROP’S DEFEAT. By 

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47. — LITTLE HEATHER - BLOSSOM. 

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48. — GLORIA. By Mrs. E. D. E. N. South- 

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50. — THE LITTLE COUNTESS. Trans 

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51. — THE CHAUTAUOUANS. By John 

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53. — MRS. BARR’S SHORT STORIES. 

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54. — WE PARTED AT THE ALTAR. Bv 

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60 


55. — WAS SHE WIFE OR WIDOW ? By 

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56. — THE COUNTRY DOCTOR. By Hon 

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57. — FLORABEL’S LOVER, or Rival 

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58. — LIDA CAMPBELL. By Jean Kate 

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CECIL ROSSE. A Sequel to Edith 
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LOVE IS LORD OF ALL. Translated 
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TRUE DAUGHTER OF HARTEN- 
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AW^AKING. By Mrs. J. Kent 
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IS JULIAN’S WIFE. By Eliza- 
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DEAR ELSIE. Translated from the Ger- 
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61.- 


oanoru. 

— ZINA£S 


65.- 


66. — THE HUNGARIAN GIRL. Trans- 

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67. -BEATRIX ROHAN. By Mrs. Harriet 

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68. — A SON OF OLD HARRY. By Albion 

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69-ROMANCE OF TROUVILLE. Trans- 
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50 cents. * 









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